


Tales of a Mechanic and a Robot

by aRandomDreamer



Series: Tales of a mechanic and a robot [2]
Category: Rodea the Sky Soldier (Video Game)
Genre: ...not yet anyway, Bonding, Developing Relationship, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Flying, Freefalling, Friendship, Gen, Handholding, Kissing, Shenanigans, Skydiving, Slice of Life, Slow Burn, a lot of this is going to be just silly dialogue, all r-series robots have cameos, also sillyness, and they're all just ion kissing him on a cheek or something, at least not at first, because they actually hold more hands than kiss, because writing silly dialogue gives me life, but not on the lips oh no, but they ain't doing anything unsuitable for the eyes of the children, hugging? maybe??, i don't know how to tag pls help, i mean they hug in the first chapter, i still might have a weird fixation over kelvis, if you're not friends with your partner what are you even doing, just being silly and maybe some kisses sometimes but nothing too graphic, just. pure unfiltered fluff., like for the ten first chapters there are like...3 kisses?, like suuuper slow, okay let's tag something else than the silly romance stuff, okay that kissing tag is actually a lie they don't kiss almost at all, some might have bigger roles than the others, there i said it, they dating y'all, they don't even call each other girlfriend/boyfriend until chapter 9, this is trash and mostly written for my dirty shipper needs
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-15 17:29:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 23,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29439756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aRandomDreamer/pseuds/aRandomDreamer
Summary: A collection of short stories set place after Tales of a New Tail, which was set after the events of the game.Or really just some small snippets from the lives of Ion and Rodea and their developing relationship as they fumble around like a pair fools they are.
Relationships: Rodea & Ion, Rodea/Ion
Series: Tales of a mechanic and a robot [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2161764





	1. Skydiving

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rodea and Ion test their trust in a new way.

”...Are you sure you want to do this, Ion?”

”O-of course I am! I wouldn’t have suggested it if I didn’t.”

Rodea crossed his arms, and gave Ion a very serious look. ”Very well...but remember that I will put a stop to this if you change your mind in the middle of it, okay? I’ll be there with you the entire time.”

The mechanic looked relieved. ”Thanks...I appreciate it.”

Ion and Rodea were standing on a cliff by the edge of an island. As they looked down from the very steep cliff, there were no islands between them and the clouds below. Only clouds that peacefully drifted in the sky, and some birds that rode the winds.

Nothing between them and the ground somewhere far, far down below the clouds. So far below that you couldn’t even see it.

Ion took a shaky breath, and Rodea glanced at her with worry in his eyes. ”Ion...I want you to know that I won’t think any less of you if you back down now.”

”I’ll be fine” she reassured the concerned robot, and she took few a deep breaths. ”...I am fine.”

Ion turned to Rodea, and he could see that her blue eyes were filled with resolve. She pulled the goggles over her eyes.

”Let’s do this.”

Rodea nodded. He put his arms around Ion’s waist, and Ion crossed her arms around Rodea’s shoulders. After making sure they both had a good grip on each other, Rodea launched himself in the air, flying away from the island.

After getting some distance from the cliffs, Ion looked down. They were so high up, and she could see no other island anywhere below them. Only clouds.

Rodea glanced at Ion in his arms. ”Are you ready?”

She returned the look. ”As ready as I can be.”

And with that, Rodea let Ion go as she also released her hold on him.

The first few seconds of falling hit Ion hard. She was nearly overwhelmed by the panic of gravity taking over her.

Her body spun in the air without any control. Ion tried to put an end to it and maintain her balance, but the air current pushed her so hard it felt impossible. She was like a small leaf at the mercy of the winds.

Then she noticed a familiar shade of red from the corner of her eye.

”Spread your arms and legs! Balance your body!”

It was hard, but Ion tried to do as Rodea told her. She extended her arms to her sides, and opened her legs.

And with that, she managed to slowly stop the spinning.

When Ion’s head didn’t feel like it was doing somersaults anymore, she was able to take it all in. She was there, falling from the sky. Her heart was racing, and while it was kind of scary, it was also really exciting. As she fell, she passed by a small cloud, and she was so close to it she could brush her fingers against it. It felt magical.

Ion noticed now Rodea falling close to her, adjusting himself to the left side of the girl. He extended his right arm towards Ion, and Ion reached out with her left arm. Their fingertips touched lightly, barely to even feel the contact. Ion beamed at Rodea, and he returned the smile.

They continued falling next to each other for a moment before Rodea managed to grab Ion’s hand, and yanked himself closer. He reached out to Ion’s other hand, and with that he was able to pull himself so close to the mechanic that their faces were almost touching. Ion giggled, and put her forehead against Rodea’s, and he looked content as he closed his eyes.

After falling for a moment longer, Rodea finally turned their bodies around so he could grab Ion, and launched himself upwards while carrying her. He quickly gained altitude, and soon enough reached the island where they had started from.

After landing on the cliff by the edge of the island, Rodea let Ion go. She stumbled a bit on her feet, but quickly regained her balance.

”How are you feeling?”

Ion turned around to see Rodea, and her face slowly lit up in a huge grin.

”...Never been better.”

She threw her arms around Rodea and lifted him from the ground, and he laughed as he returned the embrace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can you tell that I love freefalls and forehead touches?
> 
> Don't look at me I'm soft.


	2. A date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ion and Rodea hang out.

”...It’s really smoking today, huh?”

”Yeah.”

”Do you think it might erupt, Ion?”

”Nah. I’ve never seen it erupt before. Grandpa said that it just sometimes lets out more smoke than usual, but it’s still fairly inactive for a volcano.”

”Huh. Okay.”

Watching the fiery hot mountain that was spilling out a huge cloud of smoke, Ion and Rodea were on a small island that was much higher than most of the islands in the area. The view to Mt. Ebon was very clear from there. The island they were on was very bare, and all there really were was just some rocks and a dead tree. Rodea was currently sitting on a branch in the said tree while Ion had taken a spot on a rock under it.

The robot looked down at the mechanic. ”You know...this reminds me of the time when I went after Rylus to save you.”

Ion glanced up at Rodea and raised a brow. ”What about it?”

”Oh, nothing much…” Rodea leant against the tree, crossing his arms behind his head, ”I just remembered that your old man came along. He’s a real talker, you know? Always blabbing on and on about things…it’s like he never stops once he gets started.”

Ion let out a chuckle. ”Yeah, he does that sometimes. But he always means well. I hope he didn’t give you any trouble while trying to rescue me!”

”Nah, but he said some weird things sometimes. Like how people used to take dates to the volcano back in the day…” Rodea kicked his leg that was hanging down, ”By the way, did they really do that?”

”Huh? No, I think he was making that up. Grandma would’ve told me if that was something they did back in her days.”

”Oh. Huh.” Ion noticed that Rodea’s face fell a bit.

”...Something the matter?”

”Oh, no, nothing!” he quickly turned his face away from her, ”I was just thinking if we could’ve gone flying over the volcano, but...”

”With all the smoke in there? That smoke is dangerous, Rodea.”

Rodea kicked his leg again. ”I know, I know...but still, maybe we could go near the volcano, without going where the smoke is?”

Ion gave him a confused smile. ”What are you talking about? Why are you so fixated about going to the volcano now? We can see it just fine from here…”

Cogs started to move around in Ion’s head. _Wait a minute…_

”...Rodea, are you asking me to go on a date with you?”

Rodea anchored himself to the tree branch with his tail and he dropped down from the tree. He grinned as he hung upside down and faced Ion. ”What? Noooo, where did you get that idea from?”

”If you’re trying to act innocent, you’re doing an awful job at it. It’s basically written all over your face, mister.”

The robot rotated himself around a bit while hanging from the tree. He dramatically put his thumb and index finger over his chin and pretended he was thinking really hard, and Ion almost let out a laugh just from watching his antics.

The mechanic leant back and rolled her eyes. ”...Besides, aren’t we already out together? Just you and me, alone? It’s kinda like a date, don’t you think?”

”We hang out all the time!” Rodea exclaimed while spreading his arms as his body still was slowly rotating around, ”A date is special, you know!”

Ion was clearly amused. ”And how it would be any more special than what we’re doing now?”

Rodea spun himself around to face Ion, his face so close to hers that they nearly touched each other. He gave her a smug smirk.

”...You’ll find out if you go out with me.”

”So you are asking me out, after all.”

”Shuddup. Well, are you going out with me or not?”

The robot was surprised when Ion suddenly placed her hand on his shoulder and pushed him away. Rodea swung around helplessly.

”H-hey…!”

”That’ll teach you some manners, young man.” Ion just laughed as she watched him swaying around from the tree.

The world around Rodea was spinning. ”M-may I remind you that I’m technically over 2,000 years old…?”

The girl stuck out her tongue. ”Then act like it.”

The swaying slowed down, and Rodea got bearing of his surroundings again. His head felt like it was still spinning, though.

He heard Ion’s voice from somewhere nearby. ”You okay there?”

”Y-yeah, I think so…” Rodea suddenly noticed something grabbing him by his arm, putting a stop to the swaying. He saw Ion’s face in front of him.

”Anyway...I didn’t answer your question, did I? Well…”

She leant closer to Rodea, and gave him a quick peck on his cheek. After she pulled away, Rodea put his hand over where she’d just kissed him as his face turned burning red.

”...Consider that a ”yes”.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh hey look she kissed him
> 
> what a shocker


	3. Leaves

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Even the tiniest of leaves can be a problem in large enough quantities.

”How did you get so many leaves stuck in here? Did you shove an entire tree here or something?”

”...It was a very big tree. Lots of leaves and all.”

”If it really was so big, then you could have dodged it.”

Rodea’s entire body jerked. ”I-I was flying really fast, okay? The tree just appeared out of nowhere and I had no time to react...”

”Stop squirming. This is already hard as it is.”

”Hmph…”

Rodea just glanced away while leaning his chin against the palm of his left hand. He was sitting next to Ion’s work desk as the girl in question was sitting next to him, currently inspecting his right arm that was right now almost green from all the leaves stuck in it. She was trying to remove the leaves from the arm.

”Can you move your arm yet?” Ion’s eyes quickly glanced away from the robot’s arm as they tried to get eye contact with him. Rodea just gave her side eye.

”Does it look like I can? I’m trying to move it right now.” The arm stayed completely put as he said that.

Ion sighed in exasperation. She returned to removing the leaves. ”...This entire situation could’ve been averted if you didn’t let your stupig ego take over again and…”

”I told you this was Rylus’ fault!” Rodea jumped so much he almost got up from the chair he was sitting on, ”He was the one who came up with the idea of...ow!”

Ion bonked him in the head with a screwdriver she was using to remove the leaves from some tight spots. ”Stay still, you! I really need to focus and you’re not helping at all by moving around so much!”

Rodea cursed under his breath, but didn’t say anything. The mechanic gave him an annoyed look. ”I don’t care whose idea it was. The fact is that you still went with it, and here we are now. I’m at least glad I don’t need to fix Rylus as well.”

The machine man only grumbled as he turned away while letting Ion remove the leaves from his arm. His face turned serious, and he mumbled: ”...He was making fun of the tail you made me. Said that he surely could still fly faster than me. I just wanted to prove that your inventions are worth something…”

Ion’s hands paused for a moment, and her blue eyes took a quick glimpse at Rodea. As she looked back to his arm as she continued her tedious task, her mouth turned up in a small smile. ”...That was very sweet of you and all, but you still shouldn’t have let his words get in your head.”

Rodea only sighed, but Ion was sure she saw signs of a smile on his face. They sat there in silence for a while. The only noises heard in the room were the slight rustling of the leaves Ion removed meticulously, as she tried to be careful not to break anything. Some of the leaves were really stuck between the mechanical parts of the arm she’d built for Rodea. Sometimes Ion wondered why she hadn’t bothered covering the parts in the arm because if she had, they could’ve avoided situations like this.

After some time Ion moved away from Rodea and sat straight. ”Well? Can you move it now?”

Rodea was returned from whatever thoughts he was lost in and looked down at his arm. It felt nice to see it not covered in green anymore, even if the floor under him and the mechanic was completely filled with tiny leaves. Rodea tried to flex his arm...and it moved, although not as much as he wanted to.

He looked disappointed. ”...That’s about all I can move it right now.”

Ion put hands on her hips. ”Just keep moving it. The leaves were really jammed in there, so the joints might be a bit rigid but they should loosen up if you just keep moving the arm.”

The robot obeyed and kept flexing his arm. And sure enough, little by little it started to bend more, and Rodea was able to even waggle his fingers again.

”Heck yeah!” he yelled in excitement as he stood up and rotated his arm up and down, ”Thanks, Ion! You’re the best!”

The mechanic smiled. ”Don’t mention it. Make just sure you don’t fly into trees anymore, okay?”

”...Duly noted.”

”Now” Ion said as she also stood up while dusting her clothes, ”Would you help me clean up this mess you made?”

Rodea blinked, and looked down at the floor. There were many tiny leaves scattered all around his feet. His tail had been swiping around unconsciously, and it had spread them everywhere. It was a mess.

”...I’d love to lend you a hand, but as you can probably tell, my hand is still too stiff so I can’t really help right now. Sorry, Ion…!” He tried to run off, but Ion grabbed him by his shoulder.

"Hey! Don’t you dare shirk your responsibilities! You’re the one who made this mess in the first place!”

”It was Rylus who…!” Rodea couldn’t even finish what he was saying because he saw the look on Ion’s face. She clearly wasn’t going to take any excuses from him. He knew from the experience that trying to argue her with this would be totally useless.

”...Fine. I’ll help.” He muttered while he kneeled down to the floor, and started picking up the leaves. Ion kneeled down next to him.

”Thank you, Rodea.” She briefly nuzzled against his shoulder before pulling away and starting to help him with the cleaning. Rodea’s features softened, and a smile crept on his face as he glanced at the girl awkwardly.

”...You’re welcome.”


	4. A map

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ion and Rodea have a late night talk about a map and some other things.

”This part here is not correct at all. Whoever made this must’ve been blind or something.”

”Rodea, I swear this map is really accurate.”

”I fly over this location almost daily! I know what it looks like, and it definitely does not look like what it looks like here!”

Rodea and Ion were sitting in the middle of the mess that was the floor of Ion’s workshop. It was late, as it was already completely dark outside, and the only source of light was a lamp on Ion’s work desk. It illuminated the entire room in a soft, yellow glow, and cast long dark shadows behind everything the light hit.

Ion was sitting there with her legs crossed and holding a map in her lap. Rodea was sitting next to her, currently leaning against her side as his arm was extended over her lap, pointing to a certain spot in the map that bothered him so much.

”Just look at this! What kind of island does even look like that?”

Ion looked at the robot with an amused smile on her face. ”If it really bothers you so much, maybe we can go check it tomorrow? It’s not too far away from here.”

Rodea finally pulled away his hand he was pointing the map with. ”...Very well. You’ll see that I’m right about this.”

The mechanic let out a chuckle and rolled her eyes. ”Sure. Whatever you say.”

Still leaning against the girl, Rodea put his chin on her shoulder and studied her face with his eyes. Her eyes were focused on the map in her lap and she was smiling absentmindedly. Her eyes moved around as she was checking the map, and Rodea got completely lost just by staring at them. Even in the low, yellow light of the room, he could see how blue her eyes were.

_Her eyes are like the blue sky of Garuda. They’re so beautiful._

Suddenly Ion blinked when she noticed that Rodea had been staring at her silently for a minute. ”...What?”

”Uh...nothing” the robot awkwardly turned his eyes away, but he was still leaning his chin on her shoulder.

Ion hummed, and turned back to the map in her hands while folding it. She shifted around a bit, and nudged the shoulder Rodea was leaning on. ”Could you move? I was going to get up…”

”Oh! Sorry.” Rodea hastily pulled himself away, and watched as Ion stood up and walked to her desk, placing the map on it. ”...I bet I could draw a better map than whoever did that thing.”

”You? Drawing a map? Now that’s something I’d love to see” she walked back to stand behind him, ”I don’t think I’ve ever seen you draw anything, so I’d be actually curious to see how well you would do.”

Rodea, still sitting, looked up to Ion and leant his head against her legs. ”Just for your information, I can draw pretty well.”

”Heh, sure you can” Ion laughed as she bent down and ruffled Rodea’s hair. The robot looked disgruntled at his hair getting messy — well, messier than usual — and he began fixing it once the mechanic pulled her hand away.

Ion still hovered over the sitting robot. ”But seriously, I’ve been wondering...which hand would you use to draw? Are you right-handed, or left-handed?”

”Technically I’m ambidextrous” Rodea replied while he was still fixing his hair, ”But ever since what...happened to my right arm, I’ve noticed that the coordination of my fingers in the right hand are not as good as they used to be. So I would probably use my left hand.”

”Hmmm.” The mechanic had a contemplative look on her face. ”I probably could try and improve the motorics in your right hand...if you wanted that, of course.”

Rodea flexed his right arm. ”Thanks for the offer, but I’m quite happy with it like this. It’s still quite…handy.”

Ion giggled, and bent down to quickly press a kiss in the robot’s messy hair. A content smile grew on Rodea’s lips from the affectionate gesture. After Ion pulled away she still hovered over him, staring at him in the eyes while grinning from ear to ear. Rodea did the same, almost mirroring her expression.

”...You’re silly.” Ion broke the short silence between them.

”I thought you liked silly things, like me.” Rodea quipped back, looking up at the mechanic with half-lidded eyes and smiling dreamily.

”You’re not ”a thing”. You’re a person.” The smile on her face faded away as she clearly was upset by Rodea berating himself, but soon her lips turned up again. ”...but you are not completely wrong about that.”

The smile on Rodea’s face turned more mischievous. ”About what? Liking silly things, or me?”

Ion’s eyes were almost closed, and her smile widened. ”...both.”

A yawn escaped from Ion’s lips. The sudden noise she made woke them up from the trance-like state they’d been in for a moment as they got lost into staring at each other. Rodea looked almost startled when his eyes glanced away, searching for the clock on the wall of the room they were in. With a single look at it he was able to confirm it was definitely late.

”It’s really late. You should go to bed already.” The robot looked back at the girl with concern in his eyes, and his tail unconsciously curled around her legs.

She yawned again. ”Huh...well, I was feeling oddly tired. I guess I should call it a day, then.”

Ion carefully hopped over Rodea’s tail so she wouldn’t step on it, and walked away groggily. Rodea’s eyes followed her movements, and after she walked away he tried to get up while struggling a bit to gain his footing on the floor that was a mess with all the machine parts scattered everywhere. After almost tripping a couple times he finally got up, and Ion turned back to look at him.

”...And tomorrow we’ll go check that island you were so concerned about, okay?”

The robot let out a hearty laugh. ”Yeah, and I’ll prove the map is indeed wrong.”

Ion just waved her hand nonchalantly as she turned away. ”Yeah, yeah. Whatever helps you sleep at night.”

”I don’t sleep. I have a sleep mode I activate at night.”

”....Sure, whatever. Good night.” Clearly too tired for the conversation they were having, Ion walked out of the room. Rodea watched longingly after her as she nearly dragged herself away, and his tail swung mindlessly around.

”...Night, Ion.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can probably pinpoint the moment in this chapter where I ran out of ideas and just wrote them flirting for the rest of it. Improvising at it's finest!


	5. Acting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rodea tells a little white lie.

”...This is the worst idea I’ve heard from you in a while, Kelvis.”

”You mean the best idea?”

”No. I definitely meant worst. And that’s really saying something considering that it’s you who we’re talking about.”

Kelvis huffed. ”You’re no fun, Orthos. Are you in, Rodea?”

”...I don’t know, I’m kinda with Orthos on this one.”

”Boo. Party poopers, all of you. Rylus?”

”This one finds your idea kind of interesting.”

Kelvis’ face lit up. ”Finally, someone who appreciates my genius ideas.”

”I wouldn’t really trust his judgement on this, or anything else for that matter...” Rodea muttered with a sceptical look on his face.

The day had started so well for Rodea. A beautiful weather, perfect for flying, and nothing to bother him as he went for his morning flight. Then things had started to go downhill when he came across with Kelvis. She had demanded him to come with her. He tried to argue with his ”little sister”, but it was all in vain. In the end he somehow ended up following her. Kelvis told him to come hear about this... _idea_ of hers. And apparently she had summoned Orthos and Rylus as well, because the four of them now stood in an opening in a peaceful ( _soon not so peaceful_ , Rodea thought) grove close to the village they lived in.

Kelvis put hands on her hips and huffed again. ”Come on, guys! Who wouldn’t want to know which one of us is the best flier around!”

”Last time I listened anything regarding to flying from any of you, I found myself stuck in a tree.” Rodea crossed his arms and threw a look in Rylus’ direction, ”It took forever to get rid of all the leaves jammed in my arm.”

Rylus seemingly either just ignored or didn’t notice at all the stare Rodea gave him. ”This one still thinks we all should try it out.”

”Yeah, he gets it!” Kelvis’ body was almost gyrating from the excitement, ”It’s better if we all do it at once. Then we can compare our performances and know for sure who truly is the most skilled flier out of us all.”

Orthos groaned, and tossed his head back. Kelvis’ blue-golden eyes glanced at him. ”...That includes you as well, Orthos.”

”Don’t drag me into this” he said in an unamused voice, ”Besides, if we all have to do this, then where’s Valghis?”

”Yeah, it’d be only fair if all of us were really here.” Rodea added.

Kelvis shrugged. ”Well, I haven’t seen him around, so I couldn’t ask him to come, too.”

Orthos placed his hand on the visor on his face as he glanced at something far behind Kelvis. ”Well, you might as well ask him now. He’s flying over there.”

Kelvis spun around, and quickly spotted the robot with a dark hair flying over the forest just a bit away from them.

”...HEEEY! VALGHIS!”

Everyone turned around to look at Valghis who had halted mid-air, and looked in their direction. Kelvis was waving her arms in the air wildly to get his attention. ”Valghis! We are going to test which one of us is the best flier! Are you in?!”

The dark-haired robot just gazed emptily at Kelvis and the others for a moment, and then flew away without saying anything. Kelvis turned around to face everyone.

”...He’s really hard to read sometimes.” She shrugged nonchalantly.

”This is just stupid” Orthos moaned.

Kelvis just hopped up and down. ”Well, four out of five is good enough! So, are you guys ready for this?”

”Honestly? No.” Rodea spat out, ”I still have my doubts about this entire thing.”

”Oh, come on you.” Kelvis nudged her elbow at her ”older brother”, ”You have your new special tail that mechanic of yours— ”

”She’s also _your_ mechanic, and everyone else’s as well” Rodea quickly added while facing away, hiding the sudden rosiness on his cheeks.

”You just keep telling everyone that. You still hang out with her more than anyone else in this village” Kelvis said with a mischievous smile on her face, ”Anyway, she built a new tail for you. Don’t you want to test it out how it compares to ours?”

Rodea glanced over his shoulder to look at his tail, and then looked back to Kelvis with an uninterested expression on his face. ”….I’m good.”

”I have to say” Orthos spoke up, ”I am kind of curious about that tail as well. I really haven’t seen it in action myself.”

”This one also would like to see it used in practice” Rylus added as he waved his hand in the air in his usual pompous way.

”Yeah! Everyone here agrees!” Kelvis sounded way too happy for Rodea’s comfort, ”You have to show us, big brother!”

Rodea got nervous as he felt everyone’s eyes staring at him. The matter of his new tail was something he would have liked to keep just between him and Ion. Considering how much it had brought him and the mechanic closer, it was kind of a private matter for them.

And especially after what had happened when he and Rylus did their little race that almost ended up very badly for Rodea, he understandably felt really unsure about this whole thing.

Although he couldn’t just weasel his way of this so easily. If he just flat-out refused without giving an explanation, everyone would start to suspect something was up. And Rodea had agreed with Ion to keep their relationship as a secret from everyone for now, so he definitely did not want that. The less attention from the others, the better. No, he really had to think how to unravel this entire situation without doing the race he wanted to have nothing to do with, and not bring any attention to him and Ion.

Rodea sighed deeply and closed his eyes. He still felt everyone staring him intently, waiting for his answer.

Finally, he opened his eyes and looked back at everyone.

”Sorry, guys...I think my tail is malfunctioning right now. I can’t do any sort of race currently.”

Kelvis’s face was filled with disbelief. ”...Huh? Are you being serious right now?”

”This one thinks he’s just afraid” Rylus stated smugly. His words stung Rodea, but he kept his act. _Just stay cool. Don’t let his words get_ _to_ _you again._

”...I didn’t see anything wrong with it when you flew here” Orthos noted as he observed Rodea up and down.

_As observant as ever, aren’t you?_ Rodea thought, but didn’t say anything. He just turned around to look at his tail as he lifted it in the air. ”Well, you see...flying normally isn’t a problem, but if I’m trying to go any faster…”

Rodea took a couple steps away from the others. Even with his back turned to them, he could feel their stares almost piercing him. _Just be cool. Don’t think about it too hard_. Rodea braced his body as he prepared for a leap. The atmosphere was so tense you could have cut it with a knife, or so it felt to Rodea when he launched himself in the air.

Everyone’s eyes followed Rodea as he flew over them, and he made an attempt to boost himself in the air to gain more speed. But as he did that, he put a sudden stop to it. Pretending to lose his balance, he fell and only barely managed to launch himself again before hitting the ground. He slowly glid back to others, and landed next to them.

”...See now? I can’t go any faster, or I’ll just fall like that.”

Orthos put a hand over his mouth as he had a pensive look on his face. Rylus just nodded. ”It seems to this one your tail is broken.”

Kelvis raised a brow at Rodea, and he looked at her while still keeping his composure. _Kelvis is always the hardest one to convince._ Rodea pretended to be disappointed by his act of not being able to fly normally. _Just don’t think about it too hard, Kelvis. I know you’ve seen me to use my tail to its fullest capacity, but its ”broken” now. Just please buy it._

After a short moment Kelvis hummed, and turned away while shrugging. ”...Well, I guess it can’t be helped. He is about as good as a bird with broken wings right now.”

”...Hey! I can fly, just not as fast as usually” Rodea angrily added. Kelvis narrowed her eyes at him, and he winced. _Uh oh. Better not provoke her_ _any further_ _right now._ Rodea backed off.

”I guess that means I can go now?” Orthos asked while glancing at everyone, ”There’s really no point for any of this if both Valghis and Rodea are out…”

”Nuhhuh!” Kelvis turned back to him and Rylus who was just checking his nails, ”You, me and Rylus are still doing this!”

Orthos groaned. ”...You can’t be serious.”

”Well, this one is still in, but not as interested without the new tail of Rodea…”

As the three of them continued their little debate, Rodea snuk off and flew through the forest without any of them noticing his sudden disappearance.

_Well, that definitely was enough of the other R-Series units for a single day, or a lifetime_ , Rodea thought as he flew away and sped up when he was sure they couldn’t see him anymore. But little did he know that a certain robot with a dark hair was watching him from above as he hovered over the grove...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What is this? No Ion? What a travesty! (she is mentioned, though, and is the driving force for Rodea's actions here so it's fine I guess)
> 
> I just really wanted to write some shenanigans between all the R-Series robots. Also, more Kelvis because there can never be enough Kelvis.
> 
> I also probably have to write a chapter with no Rodea in it to balance things out, haha.


	6. Rain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ion and Rodea spend a rainy day inside.

”...Is it still coming down out there?”

”Yeah. Pretty hard, too. Doesn’t show any signs of stopping anytime soon.”

”Well, that’s a bummer. But not every day can be nice and sunny, right?”

”...I guess not.”

Rodea leant against the wall made of wooden boards, and glanced out of the window next to him. The window glass was dripping from all the waterdrops raining down against it, making it hard to see outside. The robot could see his own reflection in the dark glass: his figure was hunching down with a longing look on his face.

He let out a deep sigh, and his tail drooped down. Just as much the sunny days with blue, clear sky made him so peppy and outgoing, gloomy days like this also affected his mood. His entire being was almost like the dark, cloudy sky outside, so subdued and a total opposite of what he normally was like.

”Cheer up. It’s not like the rain is going to last forever.” Rodea raised his head at hearing Ion’s voice coming from somewhere behind him, and glanced over his shoulder to look in the direction he had heard her.

He and Ion were in the shed where the mechanic kept her airship, the Ion Wave. Since that day wasn’t the best for going out for a flight or doing any other outdoor activities, Ion had decided to do some of the regular maintenance the ship required. The mechanic was next to her namesake ship, currently inspecting the outsides of it for anything that might have needed fixing. Rodea just gave her a quick look before shrugging and returning to look out of the window. His tail swayed slightly as it hung down limply.

Ion just huffed at the cold shoulder he was giving her. ”...If you don’t have anything better to do, you could at least help me with checking for any potential damage the Ion Wave might have taken recently I haven’t noticed yet.”

Rodea looked over his shoulder again. He sighed, and reluctantly turned around and walked over to Ion. He stood next to her and glanced down, clearly not very interested in the activity she’d offered him, but since he was already there...

Ion turned to him, and gave him a small smile. ”Can you go check the top of the ship? It’d be much easier if you did it so I don’t have to get the ladder and climb there myself.”

The robot raised his brow at her questioningly. ”...What about the ”no flying indoors” rule?”

”Well...let’s just say this is an exception.” she giggled and winked at him.

Rodea still seemed a bit unsure, and the girl gave him a reassuring nod. He closed his eyes and sighed deeply, then turned his head up with a sharp look in his eyes as he opened them. He braced his body, and launched himself as gently as he could in the air, reaching the top of the ship in less than a second. His feet touched the ship as he swiftly landed on it, and he turned around to look down at Ion. The mechanic raised her hand to give him thumbs up.

”Great! That was perfect!” she cheered at him. It was indeed a much better attempt to fly indoors than the last time, which had been the entire reason why this ”no flying indoors” rule even existed in the first place.

”...What do I need to look for?” Rodea asked as he peeked down with his tail swinging behind him.

Ion raised her hands around her mouth to help her voice carry better. ”Just look for anything that looks like serious damage, like dents or scrapes. Anything that looks big enough to warrant any sort of maintenance to keep the ship up and running — or flying!”

Rodea nodded at her, and then his head disappeared from Ion’s view. The mechanic resumed checking on the sides of the ship while the robot was checking the top. Only some small metallic clanking noises could be heard as Rodea walked on top of the Ion Wave.

After circling around the entire ship on the top, Rodea raised his voice: ”Looks good up here, Ion. What about you?”

Ion’s voice came faintly somewhere below him. ”Nothing major here either. You can come down now.”

The robot hopped down, and landed carefully on the floor made of the same kind of wooden boards as the wall. After landing he turned his head around as he tried to see where the mechanic was. ”Ion…?”

”I’m here!” Rodea almost lost his balance when she came from behind him and pushed him on the back. After regaining his balance and throwing a quick annoyed look at the girl who only giggled, he resumed his seriousness.

”...Very funny.”

Ion shook her hands and smiled. ”Sorry, I was just trying to raise the mood. With you here it’s almost like it’s also raining inside, you know?”

”Well, sorry for being such a downer” he quipped back, clearly not happy with Ion’s jokes. He turned around and walked off, returning to the window he had watched earlier. He almost threw himself against the wall as he resumed leaning on it, and hunched down with his arms crossed.

_...Oh. I guess that was too much for him._

Rodea heard the wooden floorboards creak as Ion walked behind him. He swatted his tail in her direction, giving her a wordless warning to not approach him like that again. Ion winced by his sudden aggressive reaction, and backed off. The mechanic raised her hands defensively and her eyes widened. ”Rodea, please...I’m sorry. I know you’re upset because you can’t go fly outside today...that’s why I let you fly just now.”

She saw his shoulders shifting when his head turned around a bit, not quite looking over at her but still glancing in her general direction. ”...I’m not upset because of that.”

”Then...why?”

He grunted and slumped his head against the wall. ”It’s just...I don’t know.”

Ion stood there patiently, and after a short moment she sat down on a step carved in the floor behind her. She looked up at Rodea whose eyes were now staring at her. He tried to remain upset, but his face looked just silly with the exaggerated expression he made, almost looking like he was pouting. He finally gave in as he let out a sigh, walked to Ion and sat down next to her.

Rodea’s tail waved around and his shoulders fell. ”...I just don’t like rainy days.”

Ion tilted her head as she looked at him. ”Because you can’t fly on rainy days, or…?”

”Oh, I can fly on rainy days if I want to. I’m waterproof...or I was, at least.” He glanced down at his right arm. ”I don’t know how well this arm can hold water.”

”Oh, don’t worry! When I built your arm, I made sure it could stand water” Ion leant closer to Rodea, ”After all, it would’ve already been a problem with all the clouds you fly through, right?”

”Heh. I guess you’re right.” The edge of his mouth rose in a crooked smile, ”But that’s still not the reason why I dislike dreary days.”

The mechanic sat straight with her eyes fixed on the robot next to her. ”Then what’s the actual reason?”

Rodea’s face fell, and his tail swiped on the floor behind him. He crossed his legs, and put his fingers together. ”I don’t know...it’s just that on rainy days I just...kinda feel down for some reason? There is this feeling I get in my joints, almost like an ache or something. And it’s not pleasant. I just don’t feel like doing anything when it’s raining, and it brings my mood down.”

”Huh. I see…” Ion leant backwards and held her body up with her hands planted on the floor. She gazed away at the distance thoughtlessly.

They sat there quietly for some time. Rodea stared at the Ion Wave, and finally turned to Ion. ”I’ve been wondering...how did you build the Ion Wave?”

Ion was surprised by him changing the subject, but she decided it was better than dwell on any depressive matters. ”It was years ago...I found this abandoned wreck of a ship near the village. It was in such a bad shape that it barely even looked like a ship, so one obviously wanted to have anything to do with it.”

Rodea nodded absentmindedly while he faced forward, but his eyes were turned in Ion’s direction. The girl tossed her head back. ”Hauling up the ship and taking it back home with me was hard...luckily some people from the village helped me out, even if they thought I was wasting my time with that wreck. Everyone thought there was no way it could fly again.”

Ion turned her head to Rodea, and she grinned. ”I spent so many days and nights fixing and improving the ship...until eventually the Ion Wave was born. And it’s been with me ever since.”

”Huh.” That’s all Rodea could muster out of him as he glanced up and down at the ship in front of him. It wasn’t the biggest airship he’d seen, but it was certainly an impressive feat for a single person to build something like this from a complete junk that was dumped somewhere.

Then again, he knew all too well how impressive of a person Ion was. She was still pretty young, but the sheer amount and scale of things she’d already invented and built was incredible. Even if not every single thing was a success, most of them worked if given enough time and a bit tweaking — that is something Rodea had learned the hard way, as he had experienced some of Ion’s failures.

But not only she made the Ion Wave, she had also built so many features on Rodea, too. And they all worked. More or less. But most prominently, she had built his right arm and the tail. The arm that was so strong, even if it looked a bit janky. And the tail that let him fly more freely, soar even higher than before. Ion had given him so much without asking anything in return, and Rodea was forever grateful to her for that.

_Ion really is incredible, huh._ As Rodea got lost in his thoughts, a nonchalant smile grew on his lips without him even realising it. Ion noticed this immediately.

”...What’s so funny?” she asked him with an amused voice.

Rodea closed his eyes and shook his head while smiling contently. ”Hmmh….nothing.”

Ion grinned and nudged his side with her elbow. ”Come on. You clearly were thinking something just now, I can tell.”

The robot moved away from the mechanic with an impish smile on his face. ”I’m not telling.”

”Was it something really embarrassing? You can tell me, I’m not telling anyone...” she teased as she tried to poke him while he was attempting to scoot away from her reach.

”Nuhhuh. And keep your hands away from me.”

”...or what? Are you afraid what I can do with these hands?”

_Of course I am. You could disassemble me, or…_ He shook his head, smiling goofily _._ ”...No.”

”...Get over here, you!”

Ion sprinted after Rodea who sprung up at a speed he’d probably never had moved before, and ran off as the mechanic chased after him. The laughter coming from the two of them filled the shed, covering the sounds of rain hitting the building outside.

_Ion really is incredible. Only she could make rainy days this bearable._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I started this series, I was going to keep these chapters fairly short and all that. But this chapter ended up being about twice as long as the couple first chapters I wrote, and I didn't even exhaust all the ideas I had for this one! So I ended up splitting it up into a two-parter. There's more rainy day shenanigans coming, and it seems it's going to be even longer than this one!
> 
> Also, this and the previous chapter mentions Ion building a new tail for Rodea. Just in case anyone doesn't know, this series is a sequel to another fic I wrote called "Tales of a New Tail". As the title of it implies, Ion builds Rodea a new tail in that story, and it ends up bringing them together. I'll be throwing more mentions to "Tales of a New Tail" as this story goes on, so I recommend go read it first if you haven't already!


	7. A walk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was another rainy day, but this time Ion and Rodea head outside.

”It’s so rare to see two rainy days in a row. Usually it doesn’t rain this much in Garuda since we’re so high up in the sky that heavy rain clouds don’t go over these lands.”

”...I just wish it would end already.”

”C’mon, cheer up” Ion chirped when she glanced at Rodea who was sitting in front of her, ”It’s not the end of the world.”

Rodea’s entire upper body flopped down on the table he was sitting at. ”You say that, but…”

”Please. Stop being so dramatic.” The mechanic just rolled her eyes at his continuous whining.

Ion was sitting by the table in her small kitchen, and the currently very depressed robot was on the opposite side of the table. He looked like he was suffering from the awful weather outside as he moaned miserably.

”...I know you don’t like the feeling of the rain, but you could act a bit less like a baby over it, you know” Ion said and took a bite from the food she was eating: a piece of white bread with a fried egg on it. Just...bread and egg. Rodea squinted his eyes as he watched her to eat. Usually he’d complain about Ion eating ”trash”, but right now he was too deep in his self-loathing state that he couldn’t even bother bringing that up.

He groaned and turned on his side, the entire upper half of his body lying on the table. Ion watched him disapprovingly. ”Get off the table. I’m trying to eat here.”

Rodea just threw an annoyed look in her direction before sighing and wiggling himself down from the table, and returned to sit on the chair behind him. As he sat straight again, he crossed his arms and hunched his shoulders. The sight of him dramatically sulking made Ion almost choke on the bread while she swallowed.

As they both stayed silent, the room was filled with the sounds of the rain hitting the window near them. Many people found the tiny patters of rain against a window soothing, but to Rodea the continuous hits of waterdrops in the glass filled him with unease. It almost reminded him of rapid fire from firearms, and the memories of the past fights he was part of came back to him. All the loud noises, explosions, smoke and fire...even if it happened long ago, the memories were still so vivid in his head.

While Rodea was originally made for fighting, it did not bring him any enjoyment. Fighting only brought pain, so much pain. And even if over the time that pain faded, it never really went away. Rodea closed his eyes and furrowed his brows as he kept thinking about it. There was really so much pain from the past in his heart...but they were overshadowed by the good things from the present.

The peace in Garuda he had created by his own hands. The beautiful lands floating in the endlessly blue sky that was so free, he had protected it all from Naga. And he would continue to protect it, as this duty gave him a purpose. Having such a meaningful purpose to his life was pleasing and brought him happiness. But most of all, he vowed to protect the young mechanic who had found him in the sand, and built him a new arm...

Soon Ion finished eating, and shook her hands to get rid of the crumbs stuck on them. ”...Well, I guess sitting around won’t help anything. So, are you ready?”

Rodea was shaken out of his thoughts, and his mind returned to the kitchen he was in with Ion. He looked almost startled, not quite sure what to say. ”...Ready for what?”

The girl winked at him. ”You’ll see!”

She got up and walked out of the kitchen. Rodea, still sitting, leant forward as his eyes followed curiously where she was going. After Ion disappeared from his view when she entered her room that was also her workshop, the robot got up and trotted after her. When he reached the doorway to her room, he put his hand against the doorframe and peeked inside to see Ion who was at her closet, digging for something.

”Not this...hm. No, it’s not here either…” Ion was completely lost into searching for whatever she was looking for. Occasionally she grabbed a piece of clothing and threw it over her bed that was in an alcove in the wall next to her.

Rodea walked over to Ion while avoiding to step on the machine parts that were scattered on the floor. _She really need_ _s_ _to clean up sometime,_ he thought, and his face was filled in disgust by the mess. After getting to where Ion was, he stood behind her, straightening his back and rocking back and forth on his feet.

”...What are you looking for?”

”Something that would help you enjoy the rain a bit more. Hmm...no, not this either…” Ion pulled herself out of the closet enough for Rodea to see her head before she went back in.

Rodea blinked in confusion by her statement, and glanced over to Ion’s bed. Her clothes  were  haphazardly  thrown over it. Shirts, blouses, pants, socks, underwear…he blinked again and shook his head while turning his eyes away from the bed.  Looking  back to Ion in the closet, he noticed that she had found  two pairs of boots and placed them on the floor behind her.

”...There they are!”

She stepped out of the closet, and  the robot had to move away to give her room to get out. She turned around and held something resembling like a pair of  coats in her arms. One of them was pink, and the other was turquoise.

Rodea tilted his head, and his tail swung around mindlessly behind him. ”Ion...what are these?”

”Raincoats!” she exclaimed happily, raising them up in her hands so Rodea could see them better.

”This one here is my current one” she said as she looked at the turquoise coat, ”And this pink one here is my old one. It’s a bit too small for me now, but I’m sure it will fit you just fine!”

Rodea raised a brow at her. ”...Fit me?”

”Yeah! Put it on!” Ion shoved the pink raincoat in the hands of the puzzled robot. Rodea pinched the edges of the coat and raised it in front of him, checking it with an unsure expression on his face. When he lowered the coat and looked over to Ion, he saw she already had her raincoat on, and was putting on boots she had also picked up from the closet.

”Ion...are we going out? In the rain?”

”Uhhuh! Come on, put it on already!”

———————

”...Don’t. Say. A word.”

”I think it looks good on you.”

”This is ridiculous. I can’t even move my tail much with this on.”

”Oh, just quit whining and come over here already!”

Rodea was wearing the pink raincoat and a pair of boots Ion gave him. He was on the doorway leading out of the house, looking outside, and Ion was already out in the rain patiently waiting for him. She just gave him an encouraging smile.

_Ugh. How can she be always so sweet and supportive..._ The robot groaned and stepped out. He carefully walked a few steps until he was completely outside, standing in the rain. He stood there for a moment, looking up and raising his hands to feel the rain. _Hm._ It wasn’t as unpleasant as he had expected.

Ion bounced on her feet. ”Well? It’s not so bad, right?”

Rodea scrunched up his mouth and raised his arms while looking at the coat he was wearing. ”It’s still unnecessary. I told you I’m waterproof, I don’t need this silly coat or…”

”They’re there to keep you dry and clean out of the water and mud, silly.” The mechanic put her hands in the pockets of her coat. ”I am not going to spend hours drying or cleaning you if you soak yourself in the rain, or cover yourself in the dirt.”

”...Fair enough.” He finally made his way over to Ion who was still waiting for him. ”So, where’re we going?”

”Oh, nowhere, really. I just thought to go for a little walk? To get fresh air and all, it’s really stuffy inside.”

”Hm. Okay.”

And so they made their way down from the hill Ion’s house was located in. They didn’t take the road that led to the village, but instead went for a small path that led through a small foresty area filled with tiny bushes. The path clearly wasn’t used much as it was a bit overgrown in some places, but it wasn’t really hard to get through.

Walking through the woods in the rain was all new and weird to Rodea. He usually avoided going out during rainy days, so he was experiencing it probably for the first time. Everything was so different than what they usually were. The whole world was dyed in grey, almost like the water pouring down from the dark clouds had washed everything out of their usual color.

He and Ion walked there side by side in silence for a while. The girl seemed to enjoy the rain, listening to the water droplets pattering against the coat she was wearing. They came across with a huge puddle that had taken over the path they were walking on. Rodea circled around it as he tried to avoid getting his feet wet, but Ion stepped right into it, splashing the muddy water everywhere. The robot tried to get away from the splashes, and the mechanic started to kick the water at him.

”H-hey!” he yelped while he ran away. Ion just cheerfully giggled at him. After Rodea was in the safe distance from the splash attacks, he turned around and waited for the girl who was still standing in the puddle. Ion jogged back to him, and after she caught up with him, Rodea gave her a mildly annoyed look. ”...Don’t do that ever again.”

”Hmm...sorry, I can’t make any promises…!”

The robot let out an exasperated sigh. ”You’re impossible. Acting like a small child or something...”

”Says the Mister Grumpy Pants himself. Who was all moany and whiny earlier?”

”Oh, shut up.”

Ion grinned and leant towards him. ”Make me.”

She grabbed the hood of the raincoat Rodea was wearing, and pulled it over his eyes. He stepped away to escape from her, and watched her with narrowed eyes while he was fixing the position of the hood. Holding her hands behind her back, Ion hopped a few steps ahead of Rodea on the path they were taking, and turned around to face him.

”...Anyway, shall we continue?”

”...Okay.”

After he caught up with Ion, they continued their walk through the foresty path.

The gentle drumming of the rain on the coat he wore. The tiny splishy sounds from their feet as they walked on the muddy path. Ion’s heaving breaths. And of course the endless shower of water, raining down over the world and filling it in white noise. There were so many sounds around Rodea, and they were all oddly calming to him. The uneasiness the rain usually gave him felt suddenly so distant when he focused his thoughts on the sounds he could hear.

”Well? Does the rain still feel bad to you?”

Rodea’s head jerked up when Ion suddenly spoke. Trying to hide his surprise, he turned to look at her while she walked next to him. ”...It’s not as bad as I thought it would be. But all this water is still an inconvenience, and I would rather not deal with it.”

She nudged him with her shoulder. ”You said that about snow and ice, and still ended up enjoying the snowball fight we had.”

_Right._ Some time ago they had traveled to the snowy regions in Garuda to look for some lost items, and during that trip Rodea’s new tail malfunctioned because of the cold. It was mostly a very miserable experience for him until he and Ion ended up having a snowball fight. Rodea recalled fondly the fun times they had in the snow, and that filled his heart with an odd, warm feeling.

His face turned a few shades redder than usual as he thought about that trip, and he accidentally let out an audible giggle. The robot turned his eyes down, watching the muddy path he was walking on. He was trying to hide his face under the hood from the girl next to him, but she seemed to notice his embarrassment as she let out a satisfied sigh.

Suddenly Rodea noticed Ion was prodding his right hand with her left hand. The robot glanced down, and saw the palm of her hand was open while she wiggled her fingers almost impatiently. His eyes turned to her face, and he noticed she was watching him from the corner of her eye. When Rodea looked at her, she turned her face away, acting innocent. Realising what she was doing, he slipped his hand in hers and held it. Ion smiled, and squeezed his hand. Rodea tried to act casual, but he was beaming under the messy bangs that hung over his face.

Walking hand in hand, the path led the two of them to the edge of the island they were on. They stopped there to stand for a moment, watching the scenery that unfolded before them. Dark grey clouds filled the sky as far as they could see. There were no signs of the clouds breaking up anytime soon.

It felt so weird for Rodea to see the sky like this. He was so used to the bright blue sky that was filled with puffy white clouds. The almost endless beautiful days in Garuda made him forget that sometimes even the sky had days when it was feeling down. Or that’s how it felt to Rodea when he stood there, watching the sky pour water over the world. It was like Garuda was crying over the past pain and sufferings it has gone through, like when Naga had mercilessly attacked it.

_I guess me and Garuda have more in common than I thought._

A sudden gust of wind hit the robot and the mechanic standing by the edge of the island, throwing water against their faces. Ion let out a yelp and closed her eyes, wincing. Still holding her hand, Rodea pulled her closer and held her against him. After the wind settled down, Ion opened her eyes and looked at him.

They both were a mess, hair hanging over their faces and water dripping from them. But as Rodea’s icy eyes met Ion’s blue ones, they both couldn’t help but smile. Even if the water and wind hitting them was so cold, a warm feeling filled Rodea’s heart when Ion pulled herself closer to him. The mechanic closed her eyes and leant her forehead against his forehead. Their noses brushed slightly, and Rodea let out a contented hum.

A moment passed by as they stood there like that, not moving anywhere. Finally, Ion slowly opened her eyes and pulled her head slightly away. Rodea was almost disappointed by the sudden the lack of physical contact between them, even if they were still holding each other.

”...We probably should head back.” Her voice almost sounded like a whisper.

Looking into her eyes, he smiled dreamily. ”...Yeah. Might be a good idea.”

A giggle escaped from the mechanic. ”You’re so soaked.”

Rodea grinned. ”Like you’re one to talk. You’re dripping wet. These coats were useless, after all.”

She laughed again, and they both turned around to walk back through the same path they had taken there. While they headed back home, a content smile grew on Rodea’s lips. Even on the worst of days, he still had a piece of sun with him, so full of energy that kept him always going and reminded him of all the beautiful days he’d spent in Garuda.

As he continued walking forward, he could feel a hand that was holding his hand, and he squeezed it tighter. He had no intentions to let that piece of sun to go away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The working title I had for this chapter was "The rainy day 2: electric boogaloo".
> 
> This chapter was going to have more jokes and silly shenanigans in it, but I ended up making a bit more depressing with Rodea's inner thoughts through the chapter. There was a one particular joke I omitted completely because I realised it was a bit of a poor taste (and wouldn't have fit the age rating I'm going for with this story), but a mention to the object related to the joke still remains in the final version.
> 
> In exchange for the lack of the silliness, I allowed myself to write a bit more tender moment between Ion and Rodea there in the end. They are supposed to be dating in this story, and there will be more about their relationship in some upcoming chapters!


	8. Morning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a regular morning in a household with a flying robot living in it.

”Hmmmhh…”

As Ion’s eyes slowly fluttered open, her consciousness started to return in reality from her dreams. A bright light hit her eyes, and she squeezed them shut from the sharp pain of it. A small unsatisfied hum got out of her, and she briefly burrowed her head deeper into the pillow she was sleeping on.

After a moment she raised her head again and opened her eyes slightly, trying to adjust to the light shining against her. The girl was still half asleep, and her brain didn’t quite register her surroundings yet…

”...Good morning, Ion!”

Ion recognised the voice, but she couldn’t quite remember in her dazed state whose voice it was. She moved her head slightly, and saw that there was something red close to her. The girl blinked several times, trying to fully open her eyes, but she was still feeling too groggy.

When the clarity finally returned to her eyes, she could finally see the source of the voice that had spoken to her. On a chair close to her bed was sitting a red robot with one leg folded against himself, and his other leg was hanging down limply. He was leaning his hands and chin on his knee, and watched in her direction with a carefree smile on his face while his tail was wagging.

_Oh. It’s just Rodea._ Still feeling tired, Ion just turned around in the bed and put her head back to the pillow while pulling the covers over her.

_...Wait. Rodea?_ Suddenly feeling much more awake, Ion’s entire body sprung up as she sat in the bed and turned to look at the robot who was still very much staring at her.

”...Are you finally up, Ion?” He asked and put his leg down, slightly rocking on the chair.

A variety of emotions went through Ion’s face while she was clearly trying to process what was going on here. She put her hands together and placed the tip of her fingers over her mouth, taking a deep breath and looking at the robot in disbelief. ”Rodea...were you watching me to sleep?”

His entire body jerked backwards. Raising his arms in surprise and glancing away nervously, he seemed to think very hard about what he should say. ”...No?”

Ion narrowed her eyes at him. ”Don’t lie to me. You’ve been sitting there the whole time since I woke up. Don’t tell me you just got here.”

His shoulders fell in defeat. There was no way he could argue with Ion about this. ”Okay, okay. I was just waiting for you to get up, okay? Nothing wrong about that, right?”

”Just...how long have you been there?” Ion couldn’t help but notice he was avoiding eye contact with her when she pressed him with her question. ”...Answer me.”

”...Since five or something? I don’t know.”

The mechanic glanced at the clock on the wall, and squinted her eyes to see better in the bright morning light that was coming from the window in the room. According to the clock, it was a little bit past seven in the morning. Way too early to wake up in Ion’s opinion.

It took a moment for her tired brain to do the basic math from the information she’d gotten from Rodea and the clock. ”So you’re telling me you’ve been there, watching me to sleep...for two hours?”

Rodea blinked a few times while glancing away before looking back to Ion, and gave her an awkward smile and a nonchalant shrug. ”...Yes?”

The girl sighed deeply and pinched her fingers between her eyes. ”...It’s way too early for this. I’m going back to bed.”

Rodea visibly relaxed and slumped down a bit, but then he jumped when Ion suddenly spun around to point at him. ”And you. Out. Now.”

The robot looked unsure. ”Out of this room, or the house…?”

”I don’t care! Just get out of here already.” She huffed. ”...I need to install a lock to the door so you can’t get in like that…”

”What about the window?” Rodea asked while gesturing to the window in the room. Ion blinked.

”...Thanks for reminding me. I’ll get to that right away...once I’ve got a bit more sleep. Now, get out!”

———————

Rodea perked up when he heard the door creaking as it opened.

The robot was sitting on the floor in the hallway, next to the door leading to Ion’s room. His legs were folded against his chest and arms placed over his knees, and his tail was curled around his body. His head raised to look up when Ion stepped out of the room, still looking a bit sleepy even though she had got couple hours more sleep after the incident earlier that morning.

The mechanic noticed the robot sitting on the floor, and sighed. He looked almost like a sad puppy as he sat there.

”...Don’t tell me you’ve been waiting there the entire time after I threw you out.” Rodea only hummed melancholically in response and looked away. Ion ran a hand through her hair. ”What are you even doing here at this time? Don’t you usually go for your morning flights? It’s a really beautiful day today, after all. Wait, is your tail…?”

”It’s working just fine.” He flicked the tail slightly. ”...I thought I could do something different for once.”

The girl tilted her head with a puzzled expression on her face. ”What do you mean?”

Rodea glanced up to Ion, looking unsure, and then lowered his gaze back to the floor. He flicked his tail again. ”Well...we usually don’t get to see each other in the mornings because I leave so early that you’re still sleeping. I just...wanted to spend a morning with you for once.”

The mechanic put a hand on her hip and exhaled deeply. ”...You could have warned me in advance instead of breaking in my room and creeping the heck out of me.”

”Yeah, I know…” Rodea still faced down while his tail was gently beating against the floor, but Ion noticed his eyes were staring at her. ”I guess I just didn’t want to ruin the surprise for you. I apologise for scaring you like that.”

Despite sneaking into her room — and watching her to sleep for _two hours —_ Ion couldn’t help but smile at him when the last bits of her anger from the earlier incident faded away. _This guy, I swear. So sweet through and through…_ _Even if he’s a bit awkward when it comes to social norms._

”...Apology accepted. At least you now know to be better than that, right?” She bent down to ruffle his hair. Even though Rodea did not like her messing with his hair like that, a smile crept on his face and he chuckled. After Ion pulled her hand away she almost let out a laugh at the sight of him, smiling goofily with strands of his hair pointing in different directions like tiny spikes. ”Well, I think I’m going to have some breakfast. You coming?”

”Yeah!” The robot’s body sprung up so fast Ion barely could even notice him moving. ”Uh, I mean...can I come?”

”Pfft, I was the one to ask! But thank you for asking first.” She gave him a quick love tap on his left arm, and Rodea rubbed the spot she hit while the edges of his mouth rose in an awkward smile. The mechanic laughed as she made her way to the kitchen, and the robot followed closely behind her.

_Yeah._ _I think_ _this is going to be a good day_ , Ion thought to herself, and the smile on her face was almost as bright as the sunlight coming from outside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rodea's actions in this chapter can be summed up by that one meme that goes like this:
> 
> "What are you doing when I'm gone?"  
> "Waiting for you to come back."
> 
> He just really loves spending time with his (girl)friend.


	9. The bond

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ion and Rodea reforge their bond.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning, contains high doses of awkwardness and tooth-rotting fluff just for the sake of it!

”...That was five skips.”

”No way! I counted four.”

”No, I am certain it was five.”

”Hmph.” Ion tossed a small round stone in her hands. ”Well, watch this!”

She extended her arm far behind her and threw the stone. The tiny pebble flew far, and hit the surface of a pond and skipped over it a couple times before sinking in the water.

Rodea’s tail swayed in large arcs as he watched where the stone had sunk, and then he turned his eyes to Ion. ”...Three skips.”

Ion looked at him sceptically. ”Do you need to get your eyes checked, or something? That was definitely four!”

”You’re the one who probably needs glasses at this rate. My eyes were made really sharp.”

The mechanic jabbed the robot on his side. ”As if!”

It was a pleasant day with sunny weather and few clouds and barely any wind. And on days such as this one, when Ion wasn’t too busy with working on some new contraption or fixing old machines, she and Rodea often went for flights together as the robot carried the mechanic to the skies with him. And this day was no exception. After a while of flying together in the clouds and doing some extreme air tricks, they had decided to take a small break on an island with a pretty pond in it. The beach by the pond was filled with tiny, round stones that were smoothed out by the water over the time.

And so Ion and Rodea ended up killing some time by skipping stones.

They were sitting side by side on a bigger rock next to the pond. Ion bent down to pick up another stone and threw it at the water. Rodea’s eyes followed carefully as it skipped over the pond’s surface before sinking like every other stone they’d thrown before it.

”Three skips again.”

Ion huffed. ”I’d like to see you do better!”

Rodea gave the girl a smug grin as he tossed a stone in his left hand. He stretched out his arm, and threw the stone at high speed. The stone hit the pond’s surface and almost glid over it, doing multiple bounces until finally disappearing below the surface. The robot turned his head in Ion’s direction. ”...Six.”

”No way! You’re cheating!”

Rodea shrugged nonchalantly. ”It’s all about the technique. Your throws lack precision.”

”Hmph.” The girl turned away from him, pouting. ”I still think you’re a cheater.”

”Come on, do I look like a cheater to you?”

Ion glanced over her shoulder to see Rodea who was leaning towards her, grinning from ear to ear. She had to fight back against the laugh that almost got out of her. ”...You’re terrible.”

He leant closer to her with his grin getting even wider. ”That smile on your face tells me otherwise.”

_Oh, two can play this game_. Ion threw her legs over the rock she was sitting on to turn complelely around to face the robot, getting so close that their faces were almost touching. ”What does my smile tell you, then?”

She could see Rodea briefly flinching by her sudden boldness, but he quickly collected his composure...even though Ion was sure his face had turned slightly pink. ”Um...I can see that you admire my great stone skipping skills, even if you can’t bring yourself to admit it.”

_Yo_ _u cheeky little..._ the mechanic could feel her face heating up, but she remained calm outside and inched closer to him. ”...And what else?”

Her face was so close his that Rodea could barely even think what to say when he stared into her eyes. ”Well…”

” _...Oh, I hope I’m not interrupting anything. I can come back later if you’re too busy right now.”_

Ion and Rodea jerked away from each other. Neither of them had said that. They turned around in panic, searching for the source of the voice that had just spoken to them, but there didn’t seem to be anyone else other than them around the pond.

” _If you’re looking for me, I’m right up here. I’m not even hiding.”_

This time they were able to locate where the voice was coming from, and the mechanic and the robot glanced up at the same time. And sure enough, just a bit away from them in the air was a dark-haired robot, hovering in place as he watched them with an indifferent expression.

”Valghis?!” Ion and Rodea exclaimed in surprise.

The robot in the air just hummed, and gazed over the island they were on. ”A pretty little place you’ve found here. Very secluded and hidden. I probably wouldn’t have found it if I hadn’t seen you two fly here.”

Rodea and Ion glanced at each other, both of their faces filled with worry. _How much Valghis did see what we just…?_

Valghis glid down to land on the stony beach close to the rock Rodea and Ion were sitting on. He looked at the pond, and then turned to the two of them with an slightly amused expression on his face. Rodea tried to regain his composure and got up, standing between Ion and Valghis while keeping an eye on the other robot, looking at him cautiously.

No one said anything for a moment. Both Ion and Rodea were still on the edge from being found during the middle of their...private moment. Their minds were racing, constantly coming up with all kinds of scary thoughts. The anticipation from waiting for Valghis to say something was killing them. How much did he see, and if he saw the entire situation between Rodea and Ion, did he realise what it was all about?

After a very short and tense moment, Valghis finally broke the silence. ”Seeing that you flew here, Rodea...I assume your tail isn’t malfunctioning anymore.”

The tension Rodea was feeling eased a bit and he blinked in confusion. ”Huh?”

”It was just last week, right?” The dark robot flipped a strand of hair out of his face, ”Kelvis summoned all of you R-Series units for some silly idea she had, and I heard you couldn’t participate because your tail wasn’t working properly.”

Ion, who was still sitting on the rock, leant closer to Rodea. ”Your tail wasn’t working properly? What is he talking about?”

”I...I’ll explain it later” Rodea whispered to the mechanic, and turned back to Valghis, ”I don’t see how it is any of your business, but yeah, it’s fixed now.”

Rodea noticed a weird glint in Valghis’ eyes when he smiled. ”How interesting...after you left Kelvis and the others, I did see you flying off, and judging by the speed you flew it seemed to me your tail was working just fine. But that’s just me.”

Rodea narrowed his eyes at the other robot. He was trying to keep his cool, but the excessive lashings of his tail probably gave it away to Valghis that he was very much on the edge. _So he knows my tail was working normally that day. But what is he getting out of this? I don’t see how it concerns him at all._ Valghis stood there silently for a moment, eyeing the pond next to them and humming while he clearly was deep in thought. Finally, he turned back to face other robot again.

”Well, that was originally going to be all I came for, but...could I have a word with you, Rodea?” His red eyes turned briefly to Ion who was still sitting behind the other robot. ”Preferably alone.”

Rodea’s eyes glanced to the direction of the girl behind him, and then he threw a stern look at Valghis. After the R-Series units began to live peacefully in Garuda, Valghis had been the odd one out. He really did not interact with the others, not even with his fellow robots, so having him suddenly being this forward and wanting to talk with Rodea in private was very surprising.

Without waiting for his response, Valghis got up in the air and flew towards a tall cliff on the island they were on. He stopped mid-air when he was halfway there, and turned around to wait for the other robot.

Rodea quickly turned to Ion, whispering _”wait here”_ to her before he leapt in the air and followed Valghis. The two robots reached the cliff in no time, and landed on the top of it. The wind up there felt really strong in Rodea’s ears, making it hard to hear very far. That place was definitely out of Ion’s hearing distance.

The two R-Series units stood there for a moment. Valghis glanced somewhere behind Rodea, who in turn turned his head around to see where the other robot was looking at. It seemed that Valghis had looked at Ion who was still by the pond, but was now standing there and watching in their direction. Rodea turned back to Valghis. He did not like all these subtle glances he gave Ion, because it gave him a dreadful feeling about what the other robot wanted to tell him. Especially since it seemed to be a very delicate matter as he did not want Ion to hear it.

Getting impatient, Rodea crossed his arms. ”...Well, what did you want to talk about? Spit it out.”

”Always so hasty, aren’t you? Very well…” Valghis’ red eyes looked directly at Rodea, and his stare felt so piercing. Rodea responded by staring back at them with his icy eyes, not faltering under the pressure of his stare. Valghis let out a small noise that almost sounded like a chuckle, but all signs of amusement faded away from his face when he suddenly turned serious. ”You’ve been acting really weird lately, Rodea. Between your actions about your ”malfunctioning” tail and...everything else I’ve seen, your behavior strikes me as quite peculiar.”

_Like you’re one to talk_ , Rodea thought while giving the other robot the stink eye. Valghis waited for a moment before he spoke again. ”It’s none of my business what you do with your life, but I do want to remind you that you are a machine.”

The red robot raised a brow at him. ”...Yes, I am well aware of that.”

”Good.” Valghis turned around to look away, holding his hands behind his back while staring to the distance, ”Then I probably don’t need to remind you that machines and humans do not mix...if you get my meaning?”

Rodea’s tail thumped nervously against the cliff they were standing on. Was this pressure he was feeling just the strong wind against his face, or something else entirely? _I need to steer this conversation of_ _f_ _the current direction it is taking before it’s too late._ Trying to act casual, he glanced away from Valghis. ”...Sorry, but I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Valghis squinted his eyes slightly while staring at Rodea again. ”Please. I’ve seen you around that mechanic enough to notice it. And what I witnessed just now confirms my suspicions. You two are…”

”She’s a mechanic, and my friend.” Rodea quickly interrupted the other robot. Both of those things were true. Even after his relationship with Ion changed to something more than being just friends, Rodea still treasured his friendship with the human girl more than anything. ”I do not know what you’re accusing me of, but I am allowed to spend time with my friend if I want to.”

Valghis let out an amused chuckle, and looked up in the sky. ”Hm. Well, it’s still none of my business.”

”Then why are you…?”

”Just some friendly advice from me to you as a fellow unit from the R-Series.” His voice remained oddly calm the entire time he spoke. ”As I said, machines and humans do not mix. Our livespans greatly exceed human’s, and we were not built to have any...humanly needs. ”

The silver-haired robot clutched his chest with his right hand. This matter was getting way too personal to him, and he wanted to speak up his mind. Heck if he cared about being found out anymore, he couldn’t let Valghis have it his way any longer.

Rodea raised his head to look directly at Valghis, and his eyes were unwavering. ”But you and I, and Kelvis, Orthos and Rylus, too...each of us has a heart. Even if it wasn’t built into us, it doesn’t change the fact that we have it. And that heart, and all the emotions it gives us, is no different from what humans have. Since we are capable of having feelings like they do, is it really so wrong for us to follow those feelings?”

The edges of Valghis’ mouth turned up slightly. ”So you’re admitting for having this romantic affair with the human girl?”

Rodea’s entire body jerked. Even if he denied it until the very end, the cat was out of the bag now. Valghis had figured out the secret between him and Ion. For a moment he was completely frozen from the shock, and then his heart sunk. _No..._ _this can’t be happening! T_ _his is not how it was supposed to go!_

Clearly noticing Rodea’s worry just by looking at him, Valghis spoke again: ”Do not worry. I have no intention to spread the word about this...secret of yours. Gossiping is awfully boring, if you ask me.”

The robots stood there for a moment without speaking to each other. Rodea just looked away from Valghis, his eyes fixed to the cliff under his feet. By every passing second the reality of the situation he was in hit Rodea even more. The words Valghis had just said stung so hard. _”Machines and humans do not mix”...How could someone with a heart say something so cruel? It’s almost like he doesn’t have any emotions at all,_ _he clearly doesn’t know what it is like to have feelings like this..._

”Well, that’s all I wanted to tell you.” Rodea could barely even register that Valghis had just talked, or that he got up in the air, preparing to leave. But before he left, he turned to look at Rodea one more time. ”But heed my words: we were not built to have feelings like humans do. And we definitely were not built to...love.”

After saying that Valghis flew off, leaving Rodea alone on the cliff. The wind blowing against him felt so defeating, and his body slumped down. Standing on his knees, he balled his hands into fists and hit the cliff in frustration. _What am I going to do now? Even if Valghis won’t tell anyone, the fact is that he was able to fi_ _gure_ _out our secret. Who knows when everyone else will_ _also_ _find_ _it_ _ou_ _t_ _…_

_Wait. Our secret._

_...Ion!_

Remembering that this matter did not concern only him but also the human girl who was still waiting for him, Rodea leapt in the air and launched himself towards the pond. He swiftly landed on the stony beach next to the mechanic who was still standing there, looking at the robot with a worried expression on her face. Seeing her like that made Rodea uncomfortable, almost like he was the cause of her worries. Which, to be fair, wasn’t a completely wrong statement considering the situation they were in.

Ion was clearly very nervous, but she gathered enough courage to speak. ”...What he wanted to talk about, Rodea?”

For a short moment Rodea considered his actions here. He really did not want to worry Ion more than necessary...but he shook his head at that thought. _No. I better be honest with_ _Ion._ _I trust her, and I need to be able to share everything with her if we want this to work._ Rodea sighed deeply.

”...Valghis knows. About us, I mean. But!” He hastily added, ”He said he wasn’t going to tell anyone.”

Ion glanced down, sadness filling her face. ”I figured...but are you sure we can trust his word?”

Rodea turned around to gaze at the pond next to them. ”I don’t think we need to be really worried about him. He might be...a bit weird sometimes, but as far as I know, he is not a liar.”

The girl nodded, but still kept her eyes in the ground around her feet. The robot sighed again and hunched his shoulders while still looking at the pond. The water was so calm and peaceful...but his mind felt like a storming sea. Frustrated, Rodea kicked his foot to the ground, making some small stones fly around and some of them hit the water. The stillness of the water broke into tiny ripples that filled the surface, until they slowly faded away and the pond was still again.

He glanced at the mechanic standing near him, still looking down. It seemed that she was lost in her thoughts. The silence between them made Rodea anxious — they often had silent moments while hanging out, but usually those moments were far more comfortable and relaxing. The tension of the sudden encounter with Valghis and him finding out about their relationship was still hanging in the air, and Rodea felt like he was going to explode if Ion didn’t talk to him right now. Sighing, he forced himself to turn away from the pond to face the girl.

”...What are you thinking of?” Rodea prompted her to speak up. _Please. Please talk to me, Ion._

She rubbed her left arm while still looking down. ”I don’t know...I don’t know what to think about this entire thing.”

There was no easy way out of this. They needed to face this problem head-first, or otherwise it was going to slowly eat them from inside until neither of them could take it anymore. Rodea gathered all of his courage to ask the dreaded question. ”...Do you want to tell everyone about our secret?”

Ion jumped and looked startled by Rodea’s question, and raised her head to look directly at him. _At least_ _now_ _she_ _i_ _sn’t looking at the ground anymore._ She was quick to shake her head in denial. ”No...I don’t think I’m ready yet. What about you?”

A feeling of relief filled Rodea, and he gave the mechanic a gentle, reassuring smile. ”If it makes you feel any better, I don’t think I’m ready either.”

For the first time since Valghis had appeared, Rodea saw a tiny smile appearing on Ion’s lips. That was enough to lift most of the worries shrouding his heart. However, the smile on Rodea’s face fell suddenly. If he had dreaded to ask the first question, he was definitely afraid to put the next thing on his mind into words, because the potential answer to it terrified him deeply.

The robot kicked the ground while looking away from the girl. ”...Do you still want to...you know, keep this up? This... _thing_ between you and me, I mean.”

Ion blinked, confused by what Rodea was asking from her. When she realised what he was trying to say, she let out a small chuckle. ”Oh, you. If you’re going to ask, then don’t beat around the bush. Just say it.”

_O-oh._ He wasn’t prepared for this. Even when they had confessed their feelings to each other, they had done it with such broad terms that one might even question if it was a real confession at all. They had never really put a name to their relationship status.

Rodea’s eyes shot wide open when he raised his head and looked at Ion, and then he glanced awkwardly away while scratching his face. The mechanic was patiently waiting for his question, and she was amused by seeing his cheeks turning rosy just from the embarrassment. _You_ _can act_ _so tough_ _and_ _sassy sometimes, but asking a simple question turns_ _you_ _into a mess? Oh, Rodea..._

Rodea coughed into his fist. _Here goes nothing._ ”...Do you still want to be my...g-girlfriend?”

There it finally was. Even if it took some gentle nudging to the right direction from Ion’s part, he had finally asked it, putting his feelings for her into words. Rodea was trying to cover his face with his hand, but Ion could see him peeking in her direction between his fingers. The mechanic girl beamed at him and nodded enthusiastically.

”Only if you still want to be my boyfriend...robofriend?” Ion placed a hand on her cheek with a thinking expression on her face, ”I think we still need to work on the semantics of that.”

Rodea chuckled and his cheeks flushed completely. He tried to bury his face deeper into the palm of his hand, slightly muffling his voice. ”I-I think I’d prefer if you called me just...b-boyfriend.”

Ion could also feel her face burning, but someone had to take the lead in this situation and Rodea definitely wasn’t capable of doing that anymore. ”Boyfriend...hmm. Honestly, I like the sound of it much better.”

Rodea could only muster a tiny voice out of him that vaguely sounded like a relieved laugh. He slowly lowered the hand from his face, but looked away from Ion who could see that he was still beet red. The mechanic fiddled with her fingers for a moment before taking a few steps closer to him, and daintily reached out to hold the robot’s left hand that was hanging down. Rodea winced when her hand touched his, but he quickly relaxed and squeezed Ion’s hand back. They leant against each other while holding hands, Ion placing her chin over Rodea’s head, and the machine man leant his head against her shoulder. They both hummed contently and closed their eyes, getting lost in the moment.

The entire incident with Valghis was almost completely forgotten as the two of them stood there, leaning against each other on the stony beach of the pond. Even if this whole relationship thing between a human and machine was very difficult at times and the road they were taking was filled with bumps, Ion and Rodea wouldn’t change it for anything else in the world. Right now Ion’s head felt like it was flying in the clouds, and Rodea’s feelings were mutual.

And even if the thought of being found out was scary and still a real threat, they were ready for this. Especially now that their little secret had a label on it. And there would be a time they would tell everyone, but that would be only when they both were ready, and they would do it on their own terms. They were not in a hurry.

Funny how such a close call ended up only strenghtening their bond.

”Now...what was all that about when Valghis said your tail malfunctioned?”

”Oh, right. Well, you see...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wait, there's continuity in this story? Yep, the ending to chapter 5 was indeed foreshadowing for Valghis in this chapter. Also, hi Valghis! You were an interesting one to write. I still prefer Kelvis over you, though.
> 
> Also, I might've turned that ending way more sweeter than I originally intended to. Don't look at me, I'm weak. This is why I don't usually write romantic stuff, I only have on-off modes for it and nothing in between.  
> (also, just a note: I have no idea why Rodea has the ability to blush, but it's in some of his in-game portraits so I'm allowed to write him blushing)
> 
> But now that they are officially girlfriend-boyfriend, their relationship can continue getting deeper from now on! I have the ending for this story on mind, but before we can get to that there will be more awkwardness and stumbling around as Ion and Rodea figure out more things about their relationship. I'm really excited for some of the ideas I have, haha.


	10. Inside

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ion spends a day inside, and Rodea is there to keep her company.

”I win.”

”Whuh...? Are you serious? But my hand is so good!”

”Just look.” Ion had an amused smile on her face when she turned the cards in her hand around to show them to Rodea.

The robot huffed, and threw the cards in his hand to the floor he was sitting on. ”I can’t believe this. How are you so good at this game?”

The mechanic closed her eyes and shrugged. ”Practice.”

The young couple was sitting on the floor in Ion’s attic. The floor was filled with some playing cards, and Ion had a small blanket draped around her shoulders. She was also wearing much more casual clothes than the usual: a pink blouse and a pair of dark green baggy pants.

The attic was technically Rodea’s room, but he barely spent any time there because usually Ion was downstairs in her workshop. Therefore the attic was mostly used as a storage, but Rodea had kept it much cleaner than Ion did with her own room, so there was enough space to sit on the floor and play games.

Besides, Ion had wanted to be in the sunlight on that day. The window in her room didn’t let enough light inside when the sun was fully up, so they had opened the hatch leading to the roof to let some light and fresh air come in. Ion liked the overall atmosphere with the natural light shining down from the hatch, and she could smell the grass and trees in the air that filled the room. She had been inside the entire day, so having just a little piece of outside there in the attic was pleasant.

Rodea sighed, and threw his body backwards to lay down on the floor. He raised his arms dramatically in the air. ”It was my first time even playing this game, you know. You could have let me win.”

Ion smiled slyly and bent down to collect the cards scattered on the floor .”Let’s just say that was my revenge for you cheating when we were skipping stones.”

”I didn’t cheat! I told you that your throws just lacked precision!” What she had just said suddenly clicked in his head, and he rolled around to lay on his side so he could see the mechanic sitting near him. ”...Wait, does that mean you just cheated against me?”

”No. I’ve just known this game for a long time.” Ion giggled a bit, and a fond expression spread over her face, ”Grandpa, grandma and I used to play this game a lot when I was younger.”

”Huh.” Rodea watched Ion contemplatively when she organized the playing cards in her hands. He crossed his arms and his tail thumped against the floorboards while he was still laying on his side. ”There are some games I also used to play...long ago.”

”With Cecilia?” The young woman visibly perked up when she asked that, and Rodea nodded in response. She looked down at the pack of cards in her hands. ”I would like to know what kind of games there were in Naga back in the day.”

”Well...I don’t know much, but there is this one particular game I played a lot with Cecilia.” Rodea’s face lit up in excitement. ”I can teach it to you sometime. It requires some preparations, though.”

”That would be nice.” Ion replied in a low, almost hoarse voice. She gazed down to the floor and smiled absentmindedly.

The attic was silent for a moment. Ion placed the pack of cards on the floor next to her, and pulled the blanket on her shoulders tighter around her. Suddenly the girl seemed a bit too quiet, almost sleepy. Rodea lifted his upper body up with his arms so he could look at her straight, and his eyes were instantly filled with worry.

”...How are you feeling right now?” His voice was really gentle, almost like he was handling a delicate flower that would die if he were to raise his volume.

Ion hummed, and blinked a couple times to collect her thoughts. ”Hhmm...much better than in the morning. I’m just a bit tired, that’s all.”

Rodea pulled himself up to sit again, and the worry on his face only grew. ”You should get some rest. You’ve been up for a while.”

”Yeah, I guess...although I could go for a hot cup of tea first.” She almost yawned.

”I can make you some!” The robot perked up and got up lightning fast, and within seconds he was already on his way downstairs, ”Just wait here, I’ll be back just in a…”

”No, wait!” Ion rushed to stop him, and Rodea looked back at her questioningly. The mechanic shook her hands in front of her. ”I...I can make it myself just fine. You don’t need to bother yourself for my sake.”

He raised a brow at her. ”Is this about that one time again? I know I can do it right this time!”

”Rodea, I’ve never met anyone else before who can set a kitchen on fire just by boiling some water. I’d rather not have you to be anywhere near my kitchen appliances, thank you very much.”

They stared at each other for a moment. Despite feeling tired, Ion’s eyes were very alert, and her serious stare did not falter against Rodea’s piercing icy eyes. The robot gave up and sighed. ”...Fine. But I’ll be there to make sure you’ll be fine! Hot water is serious business, you know.”

She smirked at him. ”I know how to boil water. It’s not hard at all.”

Rodea took a step closer to the mechanic sitting on the floor and dramatically gestured at her with his hands. ”But you’re sick!”

”Oh please, you worrywart.” She rolled her eyes. ”I’m just a bit under the weather, I don’t even have a fever right now. There’s nothing that can stop me from doing little tasks that require barely any effort.”

The robot still wasn’t too pleased about this, but he decided it was better to not argue against the girl. Other than the obvious weariness, she seemed mostly okay. He only tsk’d while looking away, and his tail swiped around irritatedly.

”...I’ll be still there to make sure the kitchen won’t catch on fire.”

She chuckled. ”If you insist.”

———————

”...It’s really nice weather today.”

”Yeah.” Rodea rotated his body around to sit sideways in the chair to look at the window behind him, and then his eyes glanced in Ion’s direction. ”Do you wanna open the window?”

”Hmm...no, I think I’m good.” Ion took a sip of the hot beverage in her hands. Deciding that it was still too hot to drink, she placed the cup down while holding it. ”I don’t want any bugs to come in the kitchen.”

”Ah. Okay.” His tail swung around slightly before drooping down.

Ion gazed down at the cup of tea she was holding while sitting by the kitchen table. Rodea was there on the other side of the table, also sitting and watching out of the window in the room. After trying to take another sip from her tea, Ion carefully raised her eyes to look at him. ”You don’t have to stay inside, you know. It’s probably a really nice day for flying today.”

”I’m not just gonna leave you alone when you’re sick.” He narrowed his eyes, and then quietly added, ”I shouldn’t have let you swim in that pond, I knew the water was too cold...”

”You think I have a cold? I don’t even have any of the symptoms of it.” She moved the blanket on her shoulders around a bit, ”It’s probably just some little bug I got from somewhere. I’m sure it’ll go away if I rest a bit.”

The robot furrowed his brows and gave the girl a very upset look. ”Then rest!”

”I will, I will...once I finish this tea.” Ion took another sip from her drink and the warmth of it filled her, making her feel drowsier than before. After gazing emptily for a moment and fluttering her eyes to keep them open, she spoke again: ”You worry way too much. I told you this is nothing serious.”

Still looking upset, Rodea huffed and turned his head away from her to watch out of the window again. After a short moment of silence the expression on his face softened and his eyes turned glossy, almost like they were at the verge of tears.

”...There was this time when Cecilia got really, really sick.”

Ion raised her head when she heard him muttering those words, and saw Rodea watching her under the messy bangs that hung over his face. There was this distant sad look in his usually so keen eyes. The mechanic stared at him curiously and gave him an encouraging nod, prompting him to continue. He closed his eyes and sighed.

”It was close to Cecilia’s tenth birthday. It all happened so suddenly...one day she was up and running, and the next she was completely bedridden, unable to do anything.” He paused for a moment, recalling the past events. ”I had never seen a human in such a frail state before. It was so scary, I was afraid I was going to lose her...she was like that for an entire week, and I never left her side during that time.”

”Poor thing...even if it happened a long time ago, I feel sorry for her.” Ion could see her own eyes turning sad from her reflection in the tea she was holding. After looking down for a second, she raised her head to look back to Rodea. ”But she did get better, right?”

He nodded slowly. ”Yeah...after that week she finally recovered, although it took longer than that for her to fully recover from the after effects of it. That sickness hit her really hard.”

”I’m glad.” The young woman took a sip from her tea, and let out a deep exhale after she swallowed. ”I’m not only glad for her sake, but for your sake, too. You must’ve been exhausted if you spent an entire week watching over her.”

”I was...but there was nothing I wouldn’t have done for her sake.” Rodea leant back a bit while still sitting sideways on the chair, and his tail swayed like a pendulum. His eyes turned to the sick mechanic sitting on the other side of the table. ”And the same applies to you, Ion. I’d do anything for you. Anything.”

A small blush grew on Ion’s cheeks. _Gosh. Why must you be so selfless, you silly. S_ he raised the teacup on her lips while her eyes wandered around, and eventually they fixed to the window behind Rodea. After putting the cup down again, she closed her eyes. ”...But I still think you should go out. It’s not fair if you waste your time with me when you could spend it by enjoying a beautiful day like this.”

”I’m not wasting anything! Spending time with you is the best thing I know.” When Rodea said that, Ion suddenly let out a laugh. The robot was caught off-guard by her reaction and he looked at her in confusion, tilting his head. ”...What’s so funny?”

She giggled once more and gave him a sweet smile. ”Nothing. You’re just so sweet.”

Rodea blinked and looked away while pouting, but his face had turned slightly pink. ”S-shuddup. I am not.”

”Yes, you are. It’s really sweet how much you care about me. I really appreciate it, you know?” Ion smiled contently and glanced down with half-lidded eyes. ”I’m glad to have a...boyfriend like you.”

”Ion! Shhh!” He rushed to stand up and hiss at the girl while leaning over the table. ”We need to be careful! What if someone hears us?”

”Inside the house? But the window isn’t even open. I wouldn’t worry about it too much.” She blinked a couple times, and then her expression turned solemn. ”I understand your worry, specially after what happened with Valghis...but we can allow ourselves to relax a bit here, in our home.”

_Our home._ Rodea’s entire face flushed, and his body fell to the chair behind him. It had always been Ion’s house, she was the one who wanted to build and live in it, and Rodea had moved in just because the arrangement had made sense for them both. This was the first time either of them had referred to it as something else than ”Ion’s home”. But then again, it was Rodea’s home as well, because he lived there.

_...Am I just overthinking this right now?_ Rodea shook his head. But the idea of their own, shared home was...nice. _Our home._ He could live with that thought. His tail started wagging without him even realising it.

Ion finally finished her tea, and took a deep breath. ”...That was nice. I think I’m going to rest now.”

The robot was stirred back to reality from his thoughts, and he tried to act as casual as possible. ”...Good.”

Slowly, Ion got up from the chair and after making sure the blanket around her shoulders wouldn’t fall, she walked groggily towards her room. Rodea watched her movements attentively, and stood up to go after her. But then the girl suddenly turned around to face him, giving him a stern look. ”And you can go out while I’m resting. There’s no reason for you to stay if I sleep.”

”Oh! Uh. Right.” The robot was very clearly startled and he looked away sheepishly. Ion squinted her eyes at him.

”...Rodea. Don’t tell me you were thinking about watching me sleep again.”

”No, no! I mean, I wasn’t going to watch, but…” He stammered, and turned back to the young woman with pleading eyes. ”I still wanted to be there for you, just in case you needed something.”

Ion’s heart melted instantaneously. _This guy..._ _how can I be mad at him when he’s so thoughtful?_ She took a step towards Rodea and leant closer to him, giving him a tiny peck on his cheek. ”...You’re so stinking adorable.”

”I-Ion!” The robot jerked away from her and blushed furiously while the mechanic bursted out laughing from his embarrassment.

”Oh, come on. No one’s gonna see us here.” She shifted the blanket around her shoulders while still laughing, ”Now...get out already!”

Ion pushed Rodea on his back, making him almost trip. After briefly stumbling on his feet he regained his balance, and cast a wondering look at the girl who's eyes were very determined. ”I am now going to take a refreshing nap, and if I see you anywhere near the house when I wake up, you’re literally grounded for a week. Now, get lost! Enjoy your day!”

Rodea let out an awkward laugh. He knew Ion wouldn’t take away his ability to fly on purpose, but he decided it was better to play along and do what she said. Nodding in agreement, he made his way to the front door and opened it. Standing in the doorway, the robot watched the beautiful scenery that unfolded before him. The sunny sky with some occasional clouds there and there, and the wind felt really gentle. The weather on that day was indeed perfect for flying, and it would’ve been a shame to spend it all inside.

Swinging his tail around excitedly, he turned his head around to look at the mechanic once more with a wide smile on his face. ”Well...see you later!”

Ion leant her head against the wall in the hallway and lazily waved her hand at him. ”Later, Rodea.”

After waving his hand back at her, the machine man suddenly launched himself from the open doorway and flew away. Ion stood there, watching outside until his figure disappeared from her view somewhere in the clouds. She spent a moment longer standing there in the doorway, gazing into the distance and smiling. _He really needed that_ _little push_ _, huh._ After the wind started blowing against her face, she closed the door and headed towards her room.

Not all days could be perfect, but it was the small moments shared with him that she cherished the most. And once she was feeling better, they could spend more time outside. Go for a flight, or something.

And Ion was really looking forward to it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was honestly one of my favorite chapters to write. Just some casual stuff, nothing big going on. They just talk and that's it. I love writing casual interactions between characters, it's just fun and comes out naturally.
> 
> I am personally not a fan of the so-called "sicfics", because usually in those a character gets so bedridden they are unable to do anything, and the other character must take care of them (even if the sick character has an actual family who could do that for them, because you know, shipping and all that *shrug*). I just find those kind of stories uncomfortable to read.  
> Also, based on my personal experience over getting sick, you really need to be in a bad shape to get so bedridden you can't do literally anything on your own. Last time I was actually sick I had a fever that went to almost 39°C (102°F) at worst and even though it was really bad, I was still able to take care of myself. So it only made sense to have Ion move around here and act mostly normal, she was just feeling a bit unwell. (and she'll be all okay in the next chapter!)
> 
> Also, tenth chapter! See that "kissing" tag I had put on this story? Including this chapter, there are only three kisses so far in this entire thing, and...they're all just Ion kissing Rodea on the cheek (or on his head like in chapter 4). Let it be known that at this point of the story Rodea have never kissed Ion back, but that might change sometime in the future!


	11. Memories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rodea finds a piece of his past.

”I think you’d be interested in this, Ion.”

”Weren’t you reading that? Besides, I’m trying to work here.”

”I’m just saying.” Rodea glanced up at the mechanic who was trying to focus on the task at hand, ”You could have some other hobbies than tinkering with machines all the time. Like, read a book or something. You could learn something new.”

Ion placed the tip of the screwdriver she was holding over her mouth. ”...I think I’ll pass.”

”Hmph.” He turned back to the book in his hands. ”Once a gearhead, always a gearhead, I guess.”

”You’re the gearhead. Literally.” She stretched her arm down to bonk the robot on the head with her screwdriver. ”Don’t forget that this ”gearhead” is also the one who is fixing you right now.”

He winced and tried to move his head out of her reach. ”There’s nothing wrong with my tail. You just wanted to check on it, that’s all.”

Ion narrowed her eyes. ”Could you stop moving around so much? I’ll remove your tail if you don’t stay still.”

Rodea looked alarmed, and decided it was better to shut up. The book in his hands was far more interesting, anyway.

It was another cozy evening in the household of the mechanic and her only-recently-labeled-as-boyfriend. There was still some faint light coming in from outside, but it was already pretty dark. The last bits of sunlight dyed orange glow on eveyything it touched while casting long, dark shadows.

Ion’s workshop was still fairly well illuminated thanks to the lamp she had there. The young woman in question was currently sitting by her working desk with Rodea’s tail placed on it, while the robot himself was sitting on the floor next to her. She had wanted to do some regular checkups on the tail she had built for him just to make sure it was working alright, even though Rodea had insisted it was unnecessary.

To kill some time while the mechanic did her work, Rodea decided to read one of the books he’d gotten recently from a traveling salesman that visited their village. He had already read pretty much every book in Ion’s house and probably the entire village, so having something new to read was nice.

Even though Rodea had read plenty of books during the time he’d lived in the village, he seemed to be particularly interested in this one. Once he started reading it, he got so immersed by it that he went completely silent, letting Ion to work in peace.

Ion tightened a screw in the tail, and briefly looked down at the robot next to her. ”...What was that book about, again?”

”Oh, uh…” Rodea was slightly startled by her suddenly interrupting his reading. ”There are plenty of articles about historical events from the surface world. The person who wrote this had collected a lot of material from different sources.”

Ion mused for a moment, tapping the screwdriver against her chin. ”Hmm. Is there anything about Garuda...or Naga?”

”No, nothing, really.” He looked down at the book and flipped a couple pages backwards. ”Most of these are from the time after Naga tried to invade Garuda. I guess they both were quickly forgotten when Naga’s empire fell, and no one had interest for seeking Garuda.”

The mechanic turned back to the tail on her desk. ”...I see.”

The room was filled mostly with silence. Only some small clicks came from Ion tinkering with the tail, or paper rustling faintly when Rodea flipped a page in the book. They both got lost into their own activities.

Ion stopped working for a moment and gazed out of the window near to her. The twilight had taken over the entire world outside, and everything seemed so hazy in the ever-growing darkness that slowly spread everywhere. The sun was setting really fast, and it would be completely dark soon enough, but the last moments before the day ended were always so magical. It was so red that the whole world looked like it was on fire.

The girl was shaken out of her thoughts when Rodea’s tail was pulled away from her suddenly as the robot sprung up from the floor. He stood there, looking at the book in his hands in disbelief.

”What the heck?! I told you to not move..!” The words died on Ion’s mouth when she saw the look on Rodea’s face. He was completely shaken. Suddenly filled with worry, her expression softened. ”...What’s wrong?”

He quickly threw glances between her and the book that was open in his hands, until finally he offered the book to the girl. ”...Look.”

Ion carefully picked the book from his hands and took a look at the pages that were opened in front of her. At quick glance it just seemed to be some boring text about politics of some old country that probably didn’t even exist anymore, but...then Ion noticed that there was a picture on the right page.

It was a picture of a very old painting, depicting a young girl. Judging by the garments she wore, she was probably very rich or a royalty. At first Ion couldn’t quite place it why, but there was something oddly familiar about her, even though she was sure she hadn’t seen this girl before. But after looking at the picture for a moment, it suddenly clicked in her head.

This girl looked just like Ion.

The realisation slowly took over her when she turned to the robot standing next to her. He was visibly distraught.

”Rodea...is this…?”

”Cecilia. That’s Cecilia.”

Ion didn’t know what to think or say about this. She hadn’t expected Cecilia out of all people to come up like this again. Sure, Rodea talked about her sometimes, but that was all in the past...right?

Looking at the robot now, however, made it very clear that he was shaken to his very core over the sudden discovery of Cecilia’s picture. Or well, a picture of a painting that was about her. No matter how much time passed, Cecilia would still hold a special place in his heart.

The mechanic’s eyes stared at the book that was still her hands, and she gingerly brushed her fingers by the edges of the worn page that had the picture on it. ”...I can see now why I reminded you of her. She looks so much like me.”

”...Yeah. But it’s all on the surface.” Rodea finally spoke again, but his voice was low, almost sounding like a deep growl. ”I’ve told you that you two couldn’t be more different.”

”I’m not worried about that. But…” She raised her eyes from the book and gave Rodea a concerned look, ”What do you want to do with this? It’s a picture of her, after all.”

The robot glanced down to the floor and rubbed his right arm. ”I...I don’t know. I honestly don’t know.”

”Does it bring back any bad memories?”

”Losing her...it still hurts.” Rodea clutched his right arm, and Ion couldn’t help but take a note of his reaction. They had a discussion once where Rodea mentioned something Cecilia told him to do that had hurt him deeply, and he had instinctively grabbed his right arm back then, too. Ion furrowed her brows. They really needed to discuss about this matter and unpack whatever emotional trauma he had, but now was not the time. They had other things to worry about first.

He closed his eyes with a pained expression on his face. ”Even if our final moments together are not something I’d rather remember...I did spend ten unforgettable years with her. And those years are still some of my happiest times ever.”

Ion nodded understandingly. ”...We could frame this picture if you’d like.”

Rodea’s eyes shot wide open and they turned to look at her in shock. The mechanic had a benevolent smile on her face.

”We can cut this picture out, and I can ask Pedro to build a frame that would fit it.” She quickly glanced at the picture and then Rodea again. There was a caring tone in her voice. ”And then you could place it in your room in the attic. This picture could help you remember Cecilia for who she was, and make it easier to think about the good times you two had together. How does that sound?”

A tiny smile rose on Rodea’s lips, and his tail swung around. ”...Yeah. I think I’d like that.”

”Good. I’m glad to hear you like the idea.” Ion gave the book back to Rodea who accepted it gladly, and he smiled contently as he looked at it. The mechanic sat back in her chair and drummed her fingers against the desk. ”But that can wait until tomorrow. Now, can I finish my work with your tail?”

”Oh! Right, sorry.” After placing his tail back on the desk, the robot sat down on the floor again. He spent a moment looking fondly at the picture of Cecilia before putting a bookmark between the pages, and closed the book. He held the book close to his chest while folding his legs against his body, and Ion watched him from the corner of her eye.

”...Did Cecilia like books? Wait, were there even any books in Naga?”

”Oh yeah, books were a thing in Naga, even 1,000 years ago.” Rodea chuckled lightly, and leant his arms over his knees. ”Cecilia didn’t always have much time to read because of her duties as a princess, but there were some books she really loved. I remember this one particular book, she used to read her favorite parts from it for me…”

As Rodea got lost into recounting the memories of his late princess, he didn’t notice Ion wasn’t checking on his tail anymore. The mechanic just leant her hand against her chin, watching contently the robot sitting on the floor while he kept telling more things he remembered about Cecilia. They were just some little things she had shared with Rodea over the years that had brought them closer. Things that Cecilia enjoyed about, her little quirks, the inside jokes between her and Rodea...For some those things might have seemed trivial, but they held a big significance to the former robot soldier.

Ion enjoyed listening the stories from the past life of her boyfriend. She knew how much Cecilia meant to Rodea, and she had always wished to learn more about the princess. By doing that the mechanic was able to understand the robot even more, understand how he became who he was now. The years he had spent with Cecilia were a very important part of that. And by sharing those memories with Ion, Rodea felt that some part of Cecilia continued living on even this long after her passing.

As he held the book with the picture against his chest and continued telling the stories about Cecilia to Ion, Rodea felt at ease. There were plenty of memories he had that hurt, but he made sure to keep the pleasant ones close to his heart and cherish them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I could've turned this easily into some cheap drama...but where's the fun in that? At this point Ion and Rodea have gone through the entire "Cecilia vs. Ion" debate (for context, check the chapter 8 of the earlier story "Tales of a New Tail") so it wouldn't have made much sense to do it again here. Besides, I want to keep these as relatively simple and sweet little stories. Not everything needs to be drama and angst! Just let me have my casual slice-of-life fluff, dangit.
> 
> Also, remember Pedro? The muscular guy you meet in the game after Rylus kidnaps Ion? Yeah, human characters exists in this story, even if I don't mention them often...I probably should bring them up more, haha.


	12. Hope

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ion's hopes and dreams for the future, and how she was trying to make it all possible.

”Yo, Ion!”

”...Oh! Hi, Pedro!”

Ion turned around to greet the muscular man who was jogging towards her. They were on a path that led through the village, and the young woman currently was heading away from her house. She had a backpack made of leather hanging from her shoulder, and she shrugged to get a better hold on it. Pedro quickly caught up with her and waved his hand.

The mechanic girl watched as the man wearing a headband evened out his breath from the run. ”Hah, hah...are you heading out?”

”Yep!” Ion briefly glanced at the backpack she was carrying, and turned to flash Pedro a sweet smile. ”I’m on my way to see grandpa.”

”Good thing I met you here! I was going to your place to give you this.” She only noticed now a small item wrapped in a piece of cloth that Pedro was holding in his hand. He handed it to her, and after looking at it for a moment she took it. ”That’s the photo frame you asked me to make.”

”Oh! Thank you so much, I really appreciate it!” She beamed at him, and Pedro scratched the back of his head while grinning widely.

”So...What was the frame for again?”

Ion turned around to put the frame inside her backpack. ”It’s a little gift for Rodea. He found a picture that held a great importance to him, so we decided to frame it.”

”Huh. That’s really nice of you.” He brushed his jaw, and after eyeing around Ion he gazed in the distance. ”Speaking of him, I see that he’s not with you today.”

”No, he’s out somewhere flying as per usual.” Ion glanced up at the blue sky that opened above them. It was a bit windy, but other than that the weather was beautiful on that day. ”Haven’t seen him the entire day.”

”That’s surprising. You two are like joined at the hip nowadays, it’s rare to see either of you without the other.”

”Haha...it’s not that rare, really. I just usually work inside if he’s not around.” Ion took a step forward to continue her walk, and Pedro followed her. ”Speaking of machines...how’s Rylus?”

”He’s not doing too bad himself! At least he makes a good sparring partner.” The man flexed his arm, and Ion let out a hearty laugh. It was like Pedro was entirely made of muscle, and only he was reckless enough to try wrestle with a machine soldier. Thankfully Rylus had enough common sense to hold back on him. Or maybe he was too arrogant to go all-out against a human, one of the two.

Ever since the R-Series units remained in the village, each of them were taken in by someone living there. Rylus was living with Pedro, as those two seemed to get along oddly well. Orthos lived with Ion’s grandfather Asimov, taking the room where the girl used to live before moving out. He liked to act that he didn’t really care about humans, but he did help Asimov with the chores around the house. Valghis resided in Novio’s place, much to the man’s chagrin.

As for Kelvis...no one seemed to be sure where she lived. Ion had asked Rodea once if he had any idea, considering that he was the ”older brother” of the robot in question. He had just waved his hand nonchalantly at the mechanic and told her ” _she probably lives in a bush somewhere”_. Ion wasn’t sure if that was really the case, but she decided it was better to not think about it too much. Kelvis seemed to be doing just fine every time Ion had seen her around the village, so there probably was no reason to worry about it. Probably.

While she continued her walk towards Asimov’s place with Pedro, Ion briefly got lost in her thoughts.  Seeing how well everyone had adapted to the R-Series units living in the village filled her with hope. Not too long ago everyone w as wary of the machines thanks to  the attacks from  Naga. But now humans and machines were able to coexist peacefully, almost as if there never had been any conflict before  at all .

This gave Ion hope for her future. If everyone continued on this path, and things would get even better, maybe, just maybe...there would be a time even the relationships between humans and machines weren’t frowned upon.

Ion smiled at the thought. The idea of not needing to hide, and…

”...Hey, Ion?”

”Huh? Whah?”

The mechanic and the bodybuilder had reached a crossroad that divided in two different directions. The left path was the one leading to Asimov’s place, while Pedro was clearly about to continue his journey on the path leading to right. He had turned around to see Ion off before leaving.

”I was just saying that I’m going now. See you later!”

”Yeah, later!”

Standing in the crossroads, Ion waved after the man who jogged away. After he had disappeared from her view, she remained still for a moment,  watching in the direction he had r u n off . The wind briefly picked up and blew over the island, kicking off some sand and throwing around blades of grass and small leaves from nearby trees. It soon calmed down, and the  young woman clutched the strap of her back p ack with her hands.

_No need to hide, and_ _able to be_ _ourselves without any fear._ The thought of that becoming reality one day gave Ion strength to keep going on this path she’d chosen to share with Rodea.

_Someday._

———————

”Iiiiooon!”

”Grandpa, please...you’re mushing me!”

”What, am I not allowed to be happy to see my beloved granddaughter again?”

”Grandpa, you’re getting emotional again.” Ion tried to gently escape from the clutches of Asimov’s tight hug, and the man finally let her go. He looked up at the girl with a gentle smile on his face, and the edges of Ion’s mouth rose contagiously.

Standing in the doorway leading to Asimov’s house, the old man in question moved out of the way enough for Ion to get through. She stepped in and her eyes scanned around the insides of the building. Not much had changed in the house she not too long used to call home (although she still considered it as her home in a way). Everything looked almost like she remembered, expect for...

”Hi, Olme!”

Ion had spotted the machine man lounging on a couch in the living room, reading a small book in his hands. Orthos briefly raised his head to look at the mechanic girl who just waved her hand and beamed at him. He let out a silent ” _tsk_ ” before returning to read the book again, ignoring her. The robot had given up a long ago trying to correct Ion who still insisted calling him ”Olme”, and just begrudgingly accepted the nickname he wasn’t a fan of.

Asimov just huffed silently as he walked away, making his way to the kitchen. ”Don’t mind him. Come, Ion.”

Following her grandfather Ion entered the kitchen, and took a seat by the kitchen table while Asimov went to the stove. She placed her backpack on the floor to lean against the leg of the chair she was sitting on.

”How is Olme doing?” The young woman glanced over to the door leading to the living room, and she could barely see the robot sitting on the couch around the corner. Orthos briefly raised his head and looked in their direction, and got up with a small grunt and walked out of the room. The last thing Ion saw was his angrily swinging tail before he completely disappeared from her view.

Asimov had filled a kettle with water and placed it on the stove. ”He’s not too bad. A bit weird, but helps around the house.”

With an absent-minded smile on her face Ion still looked over to the other room that was now empty. ”...That’s good to hear.”

After putting a fire to the stove, the old man took a seat by the kitchen table from the opposite side of Ion and sat down. He put his hands together and looked at his granddaughter. ”So...how is my favorite little girl doing these days? We don’t get to see each other that much anymore.”

She chuckled at him. ”Grandpa, I just saw you a day before yesterday.”

”I used to see you daily before you moved out!” Asimov combed his beard with his hand. ”Now I don’t know if everything is alright with you.”

”I’m an adult already. I can take care of myself.”

”You will be always my little girl, no matter how old you get!” Asimov leant back on the chair and crossed his arms. ”Are you eating enough? And don’t forget that you should eat something healthy, not just white bread because you like the taste of it. And do you get an adequate amount of sleep? Are those dark circles under your eyes? Don’t tell me you still stay up way too late while working on your contraptions…”

”Grandpa, you’re rambling again.”

”Oh, right. I’m sorry.”

”It’s alright. But how are you doing? Is your back still killing you?”

”It’s better now. Definitely helps to have someone around who can do the heavy-lifting for you.”

”I’m glad. And I told you that having Olme around would be good for you.”

”Hmph. He’s still a machine, and machines are nothing but trouble.”

”Don’t be like that. Machines help make our lives easier.”

The old man huffed. ”You’re living your life with your head in the clouds, literally. I’ve heard from the others that you even go flying with that Rodea lad. It’s not safe, I tell you. What if he drops you? What if…”

”Rodea would never do that. He keeps me safe, always.”

”Never trust a machine! That’s what I’ve been always telling you, but no, you still keep wasting all your time working with them, it’s almost like you don’t spend any time with your family or friends anymore. Soon enough you will probably forget that you’re even human when you have only machines around you and...”

”Grandpa. You’re doing the thing again.”

Asimov flinched as he realised he had almost got lost into his endless rambles again, and humbly silenced himself. Ion glanced away and kicked her foot slightly under the table. The sound of a distant cough came from somewhere else in the house, which was probably just Orthos who had overheard their entire discussion.

A worried expression took over the old man’s face, and he ran fingers through his beard again. ”Ion, my dearest...you’re a young woman with a lot potential. I don’t want to see that potential to go waste. You could be doing something important with your life.”

_...But I am doing something important with my life_. Saying nothing, Ion put her hands together on the table and fiddled with her thumbs. The grandfather and granddaughter remained silent for a moment, and all they could hear was the water in the kettle slowly starting to fizzle as it heated up. After gazing emptily down for a second and listening to the sound boiling water, Ion suddenly perked up. ”Speaking of machines, I have something to give you.”

The old man hummed questioningly when his granddaughter turned around to her backpack she had brought with her. After quickly digging it she turned back to him and placed a small machine on the table. Asimov stared at it and raised an eyebrow. ”What is this...contraption?”

”You know radiophones? It is kind of like that, but better.” Ion took the device in her right hand, and gestured at it with her left hand. ”The signal reaches much farther than a radiophone, and it can contact me through the Ionceiver…”

Asimov nodded as Ion continued her explanation, but the look on his face gave it away that he had no idea what she was talking about. He sighed. ”Ion, honey, you know I don’t understand any of that weird machine talk.”

”...Alright, I’ll show you.” She offered the machine in her hand to the old man who accepted it hesitantly. He cautiously examined the contraption he was holding while the girl turned to her backpack again, and picked up a portable version of the Ionceiver she was carrying with her. She pressed some buttons on it, and then the machine in Asimov’s hands began ringing.

”Oh! It’s making noise!”

”Try pressing the big button on it, and place it over your ear.”

He glanced at Ion with an unsure look, but followed her instructions and moved it over his ear. The mechanic girl grinned, and spoke to the Ionceiver in her hands. ”Hello! Can you hear me?”

Asimov jumped in surprise and pulled the device away from his ear. ”What the...I could hear your voice from this machine!”

”Yep! And not only that...you can use it to talk back to me. Now, say something to it!”

After giving his granddaughter another unsure look, he spoke to the machine. ”Uhm...Hello?”

”Yep, works perfectly fine!” Ion beamed, and after clicking some buttons on the Ionceiver she put it back in her backpack. ”With this you can call me anytime now, and we can talk even when we are far apart!”

”Wow...this machine sure is handy!” Asimov looked at the device in his hands in awe. ”I’ll make sure to call you everyday!”

Ion leant her chin on her hands with her elbows placed on the table, and a satisfied expression took over her face as she watched her grandfather getting excited. ”Heh. I’m looking forward to it!”

Suddenly the kettle on the stove whistled, interrupting them. Asimov got up and walked over to the stove to move the kettle away, and he glanced at Ion over his shoulder. ”Anyway, the tea’s done. You want some?”

”Yeah!”

The man frowned. ”Manners, Ion.”

”Right...Yes, please.”

”That’s more like it. Anyway, here is your tea.” He placed the cup on the table in front of the young woman, and after mouthing ”thank you” to him Ion picked it in her hands.

As he drank her tea, Ion watched Asimov fiddling around with the calling device she had built for him. A content smile grew on her lips. Not too long ago even her grandfather had been absolutely against all the machines, but now he was living with a one, and accepted Ion’s inventions as well. Funny how things could change like that even in such a short period of time. The transition of the things wasn’t the smoothest at first, but watching everyone in the village now living with machines...

With her work with the machines and her bond with Rodea, Ion felt like she was bridging the gap between humans and machines. Even if their community was small, there was a high chance that her efforts would eventually spread everywhere, and that was the future Ion was really looking forward to: a world where humans and machines could coexist peacefully without any hate or fear, and work together for a better tomorrow.

That was Ion’s hope.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here's the Ion-centric chapter I sort of promised! I used this as an opportunity to flesh out how important Ion's role as an invertor/mechanic/machine-crazy person is in the setting of this story.
> 
> I also brought in some human characters: Pedro, who was mentioned in the previous chapter (and is really there to just deliver the frame he built) and Ion's grandfather, Asimov! They were suprisingly hard to write, and I put most of my creativity in some descriptions instead of the character interactions like I usually like to do. That made this chapter even harder to write, but I'd like to think it turned out alright? Maybe? I would hope so!
> 
> Anyway, that's enough "distractions" from the main point of the story. We'll be back with the regularly scheduled silly romance stuff with our favorite couple made of a gearhead and a literal gearhead in the next chapter.


	13. Falling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Falling from the sky, and falling in love. There really was no difference between the two in Ion's head.

”You got a good grip?”

”Yeah!”

”Then...let’s go!”

The force from the sudden pull made Ion’s body jerk slightly, but she managed to hold on. Wind blew harshly against her face and the whistling of it in her ears almost turned into a song. Over the time she had gotten so used to these sensations that they didn’t take her by surprise anymore, and she was able to take in everything what happened before her eyes right now.

The blue sky and white clouds merged together into a blur as she passed by them at great speed. Raising her eyes to look directly forward, she could see the clouds appearing in front of her and disappearing by her side before she even had time to think. She lost the sense of time, and eventually she couldn’t even see clouds anymore. Only blue. Feeling that their speed de-escalated, she turned her head around to look behind. For a brief moment the mechanic was able to marvel at the great vast blue spreading all over her, and the sea of white opening below.

She was able to take it all in during those few seconds she hovered there. She sat up to take a deep breath, and exhaled loudly. The air up there was really cold and thin, and it felt so fresh. It made her cheeks tingle and when she breathed it in, her lungs felt like they were on fire. It filled her with a weird sensation, making her head almost spin. Up there, at the very top of the sky, she felt truly alive.

The girl felt a slight nudge under her, giving a warning of what was coming. She pulled herself closer and tightened her grip again, and for a second there was this terrifying feeling in the pit of her stomach when the gravity took over her. Even after all the times she had experienced it, the first few seconds of it always scared her, no matter how much she braced herself for it.

But after the initial shock went away, she was always able to enjoy the fall. It gave her this wonderful feeling, almost like she was weightless. It was so intoxicating, and the young woman could never get tired of it. She watched the clouds passing by, going from down to up before her eyes as she fell through the sky.

Turning her gaze away from the clouds,  she looked down. She saw silver hair, completely messed up by the wind. Broad shoulders under the red uniform she  was hanging on to. The head in front of her moved, and she could see those  familiar  icy eyes and smile  as bright as the sun beaming in her direction. The mechanic could feel the edges of her own mouth turning up, and  a giggle escaped from her lips .

Suddenly they were hit by a cloud, and the white mass shrouded them completely. Even in the endless white filling her view, she could see those bright eyes still staring at her, glowing faintly. Soon her vision went completely white and it felt like she was going blind — and then they fell out of the cloud, and everything around them was blue again.

Ion could feel something fiddling with her arms that were clutching around him, and her grip loosened. For a moment a terrifying feeling took over her when she couldn’t hang on to him anymore — and she lost her grip. But before her brain could even register it, something had grabbed her hands, and her eyes met his eyes that were staring intently at her. His hands were holding hers tightly, keeping the two of them from drifting apart as they continued falling head-first in through the air.

Upside down, falling from the sky as the clouds passed by them, all Ion could focus on was th e face in front of her with the most sincere smile over it. His eyes were  practically shining, and the sight of it was something  so  beautiful and private only the mechanic girl was allowed to see. She’d never seen that look on his face in any other situation: it was preserved only for  moments when the two of them were  alone like this, sharing this free sky together.

Everything else in the world lost meaning, and there was only them,  the  two fallers from the sky. This was w h ere they belonged.  On moments like this it was like the entire sky  was theirs and  theirs only.

If it was physically even possible, Ion would have smiled even wider than she already was. Her cheeks hurt from smiling, but the pain was so little compared to all the other feelings taking over her right now. She grabbed his arms and pulled herself closer, so close that their faces were nearly touching. This close she was able to see a light pink blush that grew on his cheeks, and his smile turned into a grin as he pulled her into a freefall hug. The young woman could hear his laughter in her ears, a sound that was so pure and full of joy. She couldn’t hold back the chuckle that got out of her, and the two of them deepened their embrace while laughing together.

H e used his  tail to g uid e the rotation of their bodies as they  f ell, making it easier for him to finally end the fall as he launched from the wind. Flying through the sky  again , his arms held her against him. Ion looked ahead of them, seeing the clouds and some nearby islands pass by horizontally.

S he had spen t her entire life in the sky, and she thought she  had experienced everything it had to give . But every time she got to fly like this was like an entire new experience to her. It was so thrilling to see the sky like this, no devices or anything to help her ride  in the wind . It was only her and him  w ithout any boundaries.

She raised her gaze at he robot she was clinging on to. Noticing that she was watching him, his eyes briefly turned to her and he gave her a confident smile. Just looking at him when she was still high from the rush of their fall overwhelmed her with emotions, and her heart felt like it was about to burst out of joy.

Flying in the sky in a way she had never before until meeting him, falling freely through the clouds and just feeling the wind..it was moments like this when Ion knew she really had fallen for him.

He had given Ion the wings to truly enjoy the free sky of Garuda.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Something a bit different again! I avoided mentioning Rodea's name on purpose because I wanted to keep this in Ion's perspective.
> 
> Did I wrote this just because it gave pure, unfiltered serotonin for my brain? ...do I even need to answer that?
> 
> (Flying, freefalling from the sky and mushy stuff just make me happy, okay?)


End file.
